How To Look Beyond The Limits Of Our World - Lizzie Young

This is a story about how lockdown saved my life. 

2020, of all the years I’ve been alive, has been the king of the Unexpected! Even before Covid hit, there was so many moments in the months that lead up to global lockdown that were significant, defining and, for me, very painful. There were moments I was left feeling rejected, betrayed, hopeless, afraid, in physical pain from major injuries – at times it even felt like the sky was falling! (Literally... One weekend, the ceiling of our auditorium in Botswana caved in right before church!) But, as I had grown accustomed to do, I would push through and learn to “roll with the punches”. 

Then everything shut down. 

Locked in. Quiet. Withdrawn from all we knew. And, like the rest of the world, we had to adjust to a new normal. 

At this time, things started to manifest in people’s lives around us – like anger, claustrophobia, frustration, restlessness. But for me, what I had expected to draw out bad habits didn’t actually do so. What I did feel instead was extreme, extreme sadness. I had finally stopped for long enough to realise I was bleeding out, and it hurt – a lot. All the accumulative blows from the months before had met up in one big crash of emotion and I was in the middle of a moment of despair, without an understanding of how to get out of it. Pastor Jemima calls this the Adrenaline Let-Down. When you stop running for long enough to realise that you’re injured, and you need to heal or you may never run again. 

So, healing I did. 

How did I do this, you ask? And what does this have to do with living beyond our limits? Well, what I learnt through this journey of healing had so much more to do with being reminded of who I am created to be than the actual events themselves. 

I truly believe that it is not our external world that limits us. It is not whether or not we can hop on a plane, visit a friend, or simply pick up our groceries (all of which have been limited to varying degrees of extent in every nation) that restricts us. It’s what we choose WITHIN ourselves that causes either limitations or freedom. If Paul and Silas could sit in a prison, and all they had to do to be free was to sing, then what limits us from being free of our prisons as well? 

For me, to heal was to Paint. I picked up a watercolour set from my daughter’s school supplies, went into the backyard and painted an object over and over again – that object was a teardrop. Inside of the teardrop I wrote a memory from that year that I was grateful for. I was grateful for laughter, I was grateful for rain, I was grateful that the lockdown had given me the time to dance again (another vehicle of healing), and so on and so on. So many moments that before I knew it, I had filled up a full page of tears and of gratitude. That moment was very healing for me. That moment took me beyond my limitations. 

For me, I’m a creative, so painting and dancing are places I encounter God. For you it might be something else. Maybe singing, maybe cleaning, maybe organising a closet or a room, or playing with a dog or your kids. Can I encourage you to find worship and see healing in any moment that brings you joy? Can I encourage you to move beyond your limitations purely by accepting your limitations are within, not external? Trust me, do this, and you’ll see walls start to crumble. I don’t know if you were as sad as me this year. Maybe for you it’s a different emotion. Maybe it is sadness. But whatever it is, whatever the limitation – know this. Worship, joy, and gratitude can break down any wall. I hope this blesses you. 

With Love, Lizzie. 

Written by Lizzie Young 

Lizzie is married to Blake and they are on team at Kingdomcity in Gaborone, Botswana. Together they have three beautiful girls.