Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out for shape.
Now I know it’s not Scripture, but it is sound advice and it does have Scripture to back up the idea. When we get bent out of shape over any of a wide variety of problems in our lives we need to refer to Scripture.
James 1:2-4
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
Sometimes we read these verses and think that it is only talking about the big trials that we go through, but the apostle James was talking about “various” trials. Those things in life that are large and cause us to have our faith tested, and it also includes the various problems that we go through day to day that tend to test our patience.
Yesterday I was on a puddle jumper flight with about 60 other people from Dallas to San Angelo. On that flight was a young boy about the age of 3 that fell into the catagory of a various trial. Most everyone would have agreed that this young boy would have been better off in the luggage compartment of the plane.
Fortunately for me I was sitting 5 rows ways from him so his constant screaming at his mother was muffled by the engines of the plane. But the people that were around him were having their patience tested in a very real way. I have never heard anything scream for an entire hour without even stopping to take a breath. By the end of the flight everyone was more than ready to disembark the plane.
As people were standing to leave I noticed the mother as she was gathering her child and her things. She had a look of embarrassment, a look of anger, but there was also a look of love in her eyes. She had been tested in a tough way; everyone in the plane had been tested as well. I didn’t see a lot of joy on any faces as we left the plane, only relief.
It was interesting to see those people interact with the young mother as she was leaving the scene of the crime. There were no looks of disdain, no ugly remarks, mostly there were encouraging words and understanding from those around her. Blessed are the flexible.
We could use a little flexibility in our churches. This type of music bothers us, that type of clothing makes us shudder, what are these young people thinking today? Then there are the arguments over which Bible to use, the King James is the only Bible to the older crowd, others like the NIV, the NAS, the ASV, it all just boggles the mind.
The older folks look down on the young folks and the young folks look down on the old folks. It must grieve the Holy Spirit when 60 people on an airplane that are worldly can do a better job of getting along than 60 people in one of His churches. Patience is a virtue, and we could all learn to be more virtuous in our daily lives.
When you get out of bed this morning try to touch your toes and see how flexible you are. You will find out rather quickly that it is hard to reach down there. However, you will also find out that if you work at it a little while and reach a little farther each time you can eventually work the muscles enough to be able to reach your toes.
You can do the same spiritually. Stretch yourself a little each morning. Work on exercising your flexibility. It will help you to get in spiritual shape and you can begin to exercise parts of your faith that you haven’t used in a while.
Good Advice...I think I'll take it.
Posted by: Gary | 09/07/2011 at 10:37 AM
Neil,
I liked this one. Curious though...how far do we flex and at what point do we begin to compromise the Gospel? I agree w/about everything in your blog and am always up on the current daily production of it. However, upon examination of some translations of Scripture and lyrics in songs (hymns and choruses) we have to put a maximum flex capacity don't we?
Thoughts...
Ray
Posted by: Ray Earley | 09/07/2011 at 05:21 PM