Flexibility
flex-i-ble adj. Capable of being flexed, pliable, readily bending or twisting without injury, able to change to cope with variable circumstances.
There will be many circumstances in our lives that require flexibility. Contrary to my personal preferences not everything in my life goes the way I would like it to or expect it to. Dang it……
There are many things that I should not be flexible about. I’m not flexible about being faithful to my husband…ummm NO. I made a covenant and I’m not willing to compromise. My commitment to God and His word is not negotiable. When I gave Him my life that meant my whole life. My decisions on what I do with my life, where I live, etc. are not my choice but His. He leads I follow. It’s that simple. Even though that is my commitment it is still hard sometimes to follow through.
But what happens when His plans for us well, don’t feel good; it’s not what we really want to do? That is where the proverbial rubber meats the road. We still have a choice. God doesn’t want robots that have no alternative but to do as commanded. He wants followers, friends who CHOOSE to do His will. So when we’re faced with His will being something we just don’t want to do; that’s when it gets real folks.
Many times over the last 40 years His plan has interrupted mine, anyone relate? When His voice and direction come, I have often wrestled to obey, because it just seems too hard; to hard to change directions, move, or step out into something new. I hate change; I like routine and stability. I find it hilarious (not.even.a.little) that in the last eleven years God has chosen to physically move us to six different states!!! Everything is new, different and I just want to go home! Looking back I see so many different reasons for God asking us to do that, but one of the most important ones I believe was to help me to be more flexible, to learn to trust Him more, and give up my own will! I was so inflexible, unwilling to see things a different way, do things a different way or change. I was way to black and white and too rigid.
The definition of inflexible is, not easily bent, stiff or rigid, incapable of being changed, unalterable, and immovable. God cannot work with someone like that. Being flexible has allowed me to embrace some gray areas in my beliefs and be less judgmental, and that is a very good thing. He needed me to learn to trust that He had a better plan even though I could not understand it or see the whole picture; funny how God just gives you one small piece of the puzzle at a time. If we embrace each puzzle piece He gives us along the way, when He’s finished we can see each piece created a beautiful picture. But if we only obey sometimes, taking only the pieces we like or think look good, we end up with a puzzle with missing pieces and an incomplete picture. There is nothing worse than working on a puzzle for weeks only to realize pieces are missing in the end!!
If we have all of the details and understand the totality of what He’s doing in our lives, we don’t have to rely on Him. He simply needs us to trust. Inflexibility hinders trust. If we cannot bend, change, or alter our plan when God needs us to, we will break. Jonah was given instructions on what to do, go to Nineveh. He also chose to do what he wanted. After contemplating his error in judgment from inside of a whale at the bottom of the ocean he decided to follow God’s plan ending in an entire city turning to God. So many times I’ve insisted on doing things my own way only to find myself eating seaweed with Jonah…I’m learning doing things His way “tastes” better in the end!!!
Proverbs 3:5-6, Genesis 15:6, Exodus 19:9, Romans 8:14, Jonah 1:1, 1:17.