living within limits

last weekend my father bought me a  devotional book.  he knew i wouldn't  be keen to read just any book of that kind so he purchased one from which he has benefited greatly.  it is written by a physician whose committed message to  the world is about marginless living and overload, a chronic problem of americans.  it is a message i want to penetrate my chaotic, anxiety-ridden world daily.

i was delighted to discover, just three day in, that dr swenson included a quote from our beloved wendell berry:

"much as we long for infinities of  power and duration,  we have no evidence that these lie within our reach, much less within our responsibility.  it is  more likely that we will have either to live within our limits, within the human definition, or not live at all.  and certainly the knowledge of these limits and of how to live within them is the most comely and graceful knowledge that we have, the most healing and the most whole."

at the end of the day's  reflection, the author reminds us to "always remember that the race is not a race for records but a race for love.  hear me.  you do not want to come to the finish line and discover you were in the wrong race."