Reno Church of Christ

We all know an elephant can pick up a ton with his trunk. An elephant is one of the most powerful animals. Yet if you go to a circus, you will see a massive animal tied to a little stake in the ground, and he will stay there. He has the potential to go anywhere he wants to go, but instead he simply looks around and possibly thinks about how it would be different if the rope wasn’t tied down.

You see, the elephant’s problem is mental, not a physical limitation. When he was young, before he got his strength, he was tied to a stake that was deep in the ground. He pulled and struggled as a youngster and just couldn’t get away from it. One day he accepted the fact he wasn’t going to get away. From then on, he decided, whenever he was tied to the stake he was stuck. The elephant has allowed the limitations, which had been placed upon it, to keep it from becoming what it could possibly be.

It doesn’t cross his mind that he is not the same elephant he was years earlier without much strength. Nor does he recognize the stake is not nearly as strong as it once was. Some of us need to wake up to the fact that we are not the same person we were back then. God has equipped us with additional strength and if we get up the nerve to challenge what’s holding us back we could find a whole new world waiting for us.

by Robert Sisler "Not Limited by my Limitations"