| Able to make changes or deal with a situation that is changing |
When we say someone is “bent out of shape”, what are we actually saying? We’re implying that when plans change, they weren’t flexible to change with them; that they are a bit rigid in the moment!
Up until now, my sixteen-month-old daughter, Eden, has been in the flexible phase of life. Not only is her body literally a flexible rubbery mass, but as a baby, she lives in the flexibility of our schedule. It was only recently that she decided she isn’t so agreeable with a change in plans. The other day, she was playing with her older sister, Esther, and crawled over against a door. Esther realized that Bob was on the other side and would soon walk through the door, unaware that Eden was right behind it. Realizing that Eden could get hurt, Esther picked up her baby sister and carried her out of harm’s way. This is where Eden decided she didn’t agree and sunk her two tiny front teeth straight into Esther’s arm! (I’ve never had a “biter” so I was slightly disturbed.) This response was her way of saying, “I disagree with your change in plans!” Obviously, we can easily forgive a baby for this because she doesn’t have the capacity to understand that a change in plans was in her favor!
While something like this is easily fixed through discipline on my part, what do we do when grown adults “bite” people as a response to a change in plans? Young children are easy to correct, but inflexible adults can be very challenging. Could it be that we are like Eden at times, ignorant of the fact that changing plans may be for our betterment? Maybe some of us, right now, are propped up against a door that’s about to swing open and we don’t understand that a change in plans is for the best. I know that I have experienced what seemed to be the rug getting pulled out from underneath me, only to look back later and be thankful that my plans didn’t go through.
God is good and this is why we can move when He summons us.
I pray that you and I will have a sensitivity to His voice and that our obedience would be immediate. He is Lord!
“Inflexibility is the worst human failing. You can learn to check impetuosity, overcome fear with confidence and laziness with discipline. But for rigidity of mind, there is no antidote. It carries the seeds of its own destruction.”
– Anton Myrer, Author
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
“Flexible” is an Excerpt from Bob and Jenny’s Leadership Book “The One Degree”
