Know Your Limitations

We learn it as little children. We boast about our ability way beyond the truth. It may be cute to watch little children pretend to lift an entire sofa. It isn’t so cute when adults think they can ‘handle’ more than they really can handle, especially when sin and temptation are involved.

Today the Church commemorates the memory of Saint Martinian the Righteous. Take a moment and read his story below. While reading, have in your mind the temptations you think you are strong enough to fight.

Saint Martinian, who was from Caesarea of Palestine, flourished about the beginning of the fifth century. He struggled in the wilderness from his youth. After he had passed twenty-five years in asceticism, the devil brought a temptation upon him through a harlot, who when she heard the Saint praised for his virtue, determined to try his virtue, or rather, to undo it. Coming to his cell by night as it rained, and saying she had lost her way, she begged with pitiful cries to be admitted in for the night, lest she fall prey to wild beasts. Moved with compassion, and not wishing to be guilty of her death should anything befall her, he allowed her to enter. When she began to seduce him, and the fire of desire began to burn in his heart, he kindled a fire and stepped into it, burning his body, but saving his soul from the fire of Gehenna. And she, brought to her senses by this, repented, and, following his counsel, went to Bethlehem to a certain virgin named Paula, with whom she lived in fasting and prayer; before her death, she was deemed worthy of the gift of wonder-working. Saint Martinian, when he recovered from the burning, resolved to go to some more solitary place, and took a ship to a certain island, where he struggled in solitude for a number of years. Then a young maiden who had suffered a shipwreck came ashore on his island. Not wishing to fall into temptation again, he departed, and passed his remaining time as a wanderer, coming to the end of his life in Athens.

From Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Online Chapel

A wise mentor taught me, the first step in every sin is believing we are always going to be strong enough to say ‘no’ to temptation. Saint Martinian understood this. He knew his limitations and continued to flee from temptation to avoid dying in his passion. This is a lesson for us.

Most of the time we enter temptation as the little child pretending to lift the sofa. We know full well it would take a miracle to accomplish, but we go on pretending anyway. When we fall to sin, we wonder what went wrong. We didn’t know our limitations.

Unfortunately, we don’t learn our lesson. Unlike Saint Martinian, we continue to pretend we are strong enough. The solution is to run from temptation. When I was reading the story about Saint Martinian, I was expecting him to sleep outside so she could sleep inside. Instead, he ‘ran’ into the fire because he knew he would fall to sin if he didn’t do something radical.

The Church teaches us to pray the “Lord’s Prayer” three times per day. Do the words mean anything to our hearts, or are we just ‘going through the motions’ and reading. The final words, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” are telling indeed. God already knows we are always strong enough to say ‘no’ to temptation. By saying this prayer so often, maybe one day we will start to listen to the words our tongue is speaking. Out tongue has great power.

Brethren, let not many of you become teachers, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness. For we all make many mistakes, and if any one makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Look at the ships also; though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no human being can tame the tongue – a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so.

James 3.1-10

Saint James knows. God knows. The Church knows. We will not always be strong enough to say ‘no’ to temptation. When will WE learn? Maybe today is the day. The next time you pray the “Lord’s Prayer” listen to the words your tongue is speaking. Know your limitations and run from temptation.