There are
times we earnestly wish we have super-powers that can make us do good things
that are considered impossible from the human point of view. If you are a
doctor and you are faced with a very difficult emergency and you are at the
verge of losing your patient, at such times, you would wish you have
supra-human abilities to restore your patient to good health. If you have a
beloved family member or close friend who is in critical danger, you would wish
you had powers to do the impossible and save your loved one. When you are
running late for a very important appointment or engagement and you are stuck
in traffic, you would wish you had the ability to grow wings and then fly to
your destination. When we are faced with disappointments and unforeseen events,
we would wish we had the power to see into the future. ‘I wish I knew there
would be a mishap, I won’t have sent him on an errand,’ you would say.
Recently, in the Florida, USA, 36 year old Jeff Bush was in his bedroom when suddenly
the floor caved into a sinkhole and he was swallowed alive. Jeremy Bush, Jeff’s
brother tried frantically to dig him out and failed; he had to be pulled out
himself by rescue workers. Jeremy said he heard his brother calling his name
but he could not help him. He would wish he had more powers.
Well,
sometimes we do the seemingly impossible and we perform heroics in daily life
that defy common knowledge and experience. Yet, on many occasions the best of
human efforts may not be enough to save the day and at such times we would wish
we had extra-ordinary abilities. From these instances, some would raise
questions like: ‘Why? Why aren't we created or made with the abilities to do
more? Why don’t we have the eyes of eagles so that we see much further? Why don’t
we have the smell sense of dogs and perceive dangers quicker? Why am I limited
in my ability to use my brain? Why can’t I do more: fly like the birds;
disappear like the wind and materialize at will; jump down heights like a
lizard; swim endlessly like fishes? Yes, we may wonder why we are not more
independent and have more control on our lives. We may ask why we have to
depend on other imperfect humans to meet many of our needs. Why can’t we just
do it all?
It’s
important to note that our limitations are different from our imperfections.
The scriptures show that the first man was created perfect but in a good way,
he was limited. He had a perfect body but that body was limited to depending on
oxygen in the atmosphere and to depending on food provided by the trees and
crops around him. He needed water to survive. He got exhausted and felt the
need to sleep. He could not live alone as he was later given a wife to
complement him. He was not a jobless loafer who had it all; he was given the
job of naming animals, procreation and raising a large family, and helping to
cultivate and expand his abode. He was perfect but he also had to depend on
other people and things for companionship, friendship, and other basic needs of
life. And this was a good thing. His limitations made him amenable to
developing qualities that would endear him to others. He had love for his wife
who loved him in return. He had to be humble and seek help because he knew he
could not have it all on his own. He learnt the rules of co-existence and
boundaries: he knew certain things were wrong and that there were consequences
to his actions. He had to learn because there was so much he did not know and so
many things he needed to know. There was a large fountain of knowledge around
him: amazing earthly creatures and breathtaking natural sceneries. The
limitations he had made him a more lovable and endearing individual, husband
and partner. It made him the kind of man who could live in peaceful and loving
harmony with other beings. He had a free will to make choices and also had a
conscience to guide him to making healthy choices. That conscience reminded him
of the consequences of his actions. Much later, he acted on his own accord to
break the rules of the co-existence between him and his creator. He then
suffered the consequence of his wrong actions and became imperfect. Imperfect
in that he now had the tendency and propensity to sin and make wrong choices.
He was now prone to making errors and mistakes which were not part of his
previous perfect make-up. He became imperfect but he was not made that way. He
had limitations from the beginning but his imperfections were of his own
making.
Jesus was
perfect but he had his limitations too. He was born as a child with no
knowledge of whom he was or where he came from. He was a blank slate and was
just like every child. He was defenseless on his own. He needed what children
would need today. He needed loving parents who would feed, nourish, train and
protect him. They taught him how to read, write, listen and learn. He needed
food, water, clothes and a home. Even as a grown adult, he still needed those
things. He was perfect, not prone to errors and mistakes like other men, but he
was limited in his earthly form as a human being. Don’t get me wrong, as an
adult man entrusted with the duties of conveying God’s message on earth, he had
supra-human powers that could avail him of a lot of things. But, he exercised restraint
in the use of those powers so that he could go through the length and breadth
of human experiences and thus was more in tune with the human emotions of
happiness, surprise, fear, sadness, pain, anger and the likes. He was actually
hungry and tired on occasions. He actually felt the need to sleep. He felt the
pain, the agony, the raw emotions involved in all the travails he went through
in his earthly existence. The limitations he had and those he chose to exercise
made him a better human being and that enabled him to be a more loving, caring,
and understanding messenger here on earth.
Let’s go
back to the first man on earth. Now, imagine that the first man had no
limitations. Imagine he could do it all. He was emotionally contented and
self-satisfied. Hence, he did not need companionship, friendship or kinship and
thus did not need to develop qualities of love, kindness, mildness or
graciousness. He had control over his respiratory system and needed no air from
the atmosphere. He could live in isolation and avoid contact with the outside
world. He does not need to clean up after himself. He could live in any
environment: air, sea, land; and at any time he pleases. He does not need food
or some particular kind of food; he could make do with anything: soil, metals
and others. He does not need to pass out his waste or excrete waste products in
such a way that would require him cleaning up and keeping his environment
hygienic and safe. He does not need to develop good hygiene and practices that
would keep him and his environment in good working order. He does not need to
develop the qualities of peace, wisdom, strength and the knowledge required to
live in harmony with other humans and living entities in his environment. He is
self-sufficient and self-reliant. He’s independent and fully in control of
everything around him. He could easily tell the future and thus, does not need
the qualities of good planning, foresight, humility and others that are
involved in securing a happy and rewarding future. Just imagine that for a
minute. It’s a fact that the more powers and abilities we possess, the more
independent we tend to be. Yes, the less our limitations, the less we feel the
need to belong to a family or community or group or nation; or abide by certain
rules and regulations. Imagine we could do all that. How cold and bitter and unloving
this world would be.
Picture a world where we can individually take
care of all our needs. We don’t depend on others for anything. We have our own
plantation where we grow the food we need. We have our own home stocked with
all the things we would ever need. We can go to wherever we want with our mode
of transport: no need for any form of public transport. Let’s say we can procreate on our own. No need
for male and female union. We are emotionally contented: no need to seek
companionship or friendship or kinship. No need for communities or an organized
group. No need for any governing authorities or security forces. We are capable
of securing our own safety and well-being. We are individually equipped to live
a wholly independent and self-serving existence. Yet, as human beings, we are
part of the earth’s ecological make-up. We are part of the cycle of living
existence. Think of the way the earth is structured. The trees take up the
carbon dioxide we expel from our lungs and they in turn bring forth the oxygen
that we need to survive. There are numerous examples of the interdependent
symbiosis between living and non-living entities in this world and this helps
keep our world in good balance. This relationship also exists among humans. We
need each other. But what if the world was just like what I just described.
What if we are so powerful that we don’t need each other? That would be bad for
our collective existence. As bad and as imperfect as this world is now, the
fact that we need one another helps to promote our existence. No human can take
care of all his needs. Take food as an example. Some are farmers and they
cultivate the raw ingredients we need as food. Others are involved in
transporting this food to storage facilities and markets. There are also
marketers who are responsible for bringing these items to consumers. There are
governmental authorities who put in place rules and measures to ensure the
safety, availability and affordability of these food items. There are communities
that rear and produce livestock while other communities produce crops and
edible plants. Each community makes items that other communities need and as a
result, different communities depend on one another. They make concessions,
sign agreements, and make peace with one another in order to benefit from one
another. As individuals, we recognize the value of others because we need them
to help provide vital goods and services that we can’t achieve on our own. We
have physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological and social void that can
only be filled by a mutual relationship with other humans and other living
creatures. We were made in such a way that we depend on others. We are limited
in the things we can do for our own well-being and that compels us to seek and
work towards a cordial and harmonious relationship with others. If we were not
made with needs that can only be served by others, it would be difficult for us
to develop qualities like love, wisdom, humility, kindness and other endearing
qualities that ultimately make it possible for us to live harmoniously with
others.
We are
limited in our physical abilities. We can’t walk or run a long distance without
getting tired and exhausted and so we depend on means of transportation made
available by fellow humans. We have hands that can do a lot of things. It can
carry loads of items but they are limited in what they do or carry. So we get
machinery that can help us lift heavy and delicate items. We can communicate
our thoughts in speech but we are limited by how far our voice can go and how
much and how far our ears can hear. Hence, we need a medium that can convey our
messages over a short and long distance: speakers, letters, fax, phones, radio,
television, internet and others. We also recognize our bodily frailties. Hence,
we realize the need to take care of our bodies, take good nutrition, exercise,
learn about our health and wholesome lifestyles, seek medical assistance, make
savings, get insurance and make efforts to make the best of our limited
existence. In order to achieve these goals we depend on other people and thus,
we are more willing to listen to others, engage in constructive discussions and
seek more ways to ensure our well-being.
Men have
gifts and special skills in music, writing, arts, sports, entertainment, while
others are blessed with a keen sense of innovation, creativity, leadership,
speech-making and a lot more. No human being has it all. While we share a lot
in common with others, we are individually unique. If we are gifted, it’s
almost always in a particular profession or field of interest. Few people are
gifted in many fields of human endeavour and even those individuals are limited
in other areas as well. An individual who has a gifted voice often need an
equally gifted instrumentalist, songwriter, manager, and others to produce
soul-stirring music. A good painter needs the tools made by an ingenious inventor
and discoverer. A gifted athlete often needs a brilliant coach to nurture and
groom those talents into a successful career. Yes, we are only so gifted; we do
need good teachers from our early school days to spot and nurture certain
talents we display. We also need parents that would provide a loving home and
support. We need others like coaches, teachers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and agencies
that would provide the enabling environment needed to develop and nurture those
talents. Whatever gift we have, our limitations as human beings make it’s necessary
for us to develop qualities like hard-work, discipline, humility and others; we
are better off with these qualities and as a result the world around us is a much better
place.
There is one
unique feature of our limitations. No human being was self-made. We were born
or brought forth into this world with the help of others. We did not create
ourselves. No human being alive now evolved from a plant or lower animal or
from any inanimate object. We did come from outer space. This very fact is
humbling. No advance in human science or knowledge could dispute this miracle
of fertilization and birth. More importantly, we did not grow into full
adulthood in the womb. Rather, we were born into this world as loving and
beautiful creatures, yet weak, defenseless, fragile and completely dependent on
our parents or guardian for nourishment, clothing, shelter, emotional support
and other things needed to ensure our growth and development into adulthood. When
we were born, our brain was like a clean slate. Even though we developed some
basic senses right from the womb like hearing and we could thus hear sounds
from the womb, when we came out into this world, we needed others to help us
develop communication skills. We needed
others to teach us about the world around us. We needed support to learn how to
move around; learn how to read and write; how to acquire food, water and
clothing; and how to be part of humanity! We came into this world with no skill
set or the requisite knowledge needed to survive. We thus needed parents,
guardians, teachers, instructors, counselors, coaches, friends, and others with
whom we interacted on a daily basis to help us gain the right skills and
knowledge.
Today, people talk
about the erosion of privacy and family values with the advent of easy internet
connectivity, social media, new apps, smartphones, camcorders, webcams, and the
likes. More and more persons are getting access to vast amount of personal and
private information and data of other people. Many complain about losing their
privacy. Now, imagine we live in a world where people had super-hearing
abilities. You could hear whispers from far away. We have microscopic and
telescopic vision. How would that bud well with the quiet moments we like to
share alone or with our loved ones! How comforting to know that we could speak
our heart to a trusted friend or professional confident that the information is private and no
one could listen in. It would be terrible if we can’t do that. Do we really want
microscopic vision to see the millions of germs in our environment with our
bare eyes? Sometimes, when we chance upon an ugly scene, do we not usually wish
we did not see it and if possible that such scenes could be expunged from our
memories? Even in the age of space satellite, we still have and cherish our
privacy. Humans are curious by nature but there are things nobody wants to see
or hear. We would prefer not to see or hear or even know about some very bad or
painful events. We are usually grateful when we are spared some bad news. We are
better off not knowing everything. We feel
safe when we know we can run from danger knowing that the enemy is limited in
the degree and extent of harm he/she could cause. We feel safe knowing that the
enemy can’t grow wings to fly, can’t disappear and reappear at will, can’t just
materialize in our living homes and can’t just cause us harm whenever or
wherever he/she so pleases. No matter how powerful or talented or evil the
enemy is, there’s always a limit to how much harm he/she can cause. We are better
with our natural limitations.
Let's be grateful that
God, in his infinite wisdom, limited our abilities. Just imagine we could read
other people's minds. How bad would that be? What could go wrong? Sometimes, we
wish we could read the mind of a would-be killer and protect ourselves and
others from harm. We wish we could easily tell when a man is lying or scheming
to do something bad so that we can take steps to protect ourselves. When we
have this wish, let’s remember something else. How grateful we are that other
people can’t read our minds. We come across lots of people every day, some we
like and some we don’t like but we feel safe with the knowledge that they don’t
know what we are thinking. Even when we love someone, we are assured that our
secret is safe with us until we are ready or until when it’s proper to reveal
our inward thoughts to that person or someone else. Don’t we feel violated and
our privacy invaded when an unauthorized individual gains access to personal
information that we thought were private and confidential? Even when our
friends or loved ones look through our phones or messages without our
permission, we get upset. We respect the privacy of others because we expect
them to respect our privacy in return. How we cherish private moments when we
shut out the world outside and have refreshing rest; confident that no other
human can peer into our privacy at will. So, when we’re exasperated by our
limitations, like when we can't prevent harm from coming to someone we love,
let's remember the harm that others can do were they empowered to fly, read
minds, become invisible, and the likes. Let's not blame God that we're limited
but let’s be grateful for the amazing qualities we possess and recognize that
there is a higher goal and purpose in our collective existential limitations!
Indeed, we are better
off with our limitations.
