If I asked you to take a rubber band and put it over your right and left pointer fingers then pull your fingers away from each other, the elastic would stretch, wouldn’t it? Can you stretch a craft stick?
If your knee wasn’t a flexible joint your leg wouldn’t bend, would it? If your elbow wasn’t a flexible joint your arm wouldn’t bend unless it was broken and none of us want that to happen!
Being flexible is more than just bending our bodies, it is also about bending our attitudes. The Bible has many examples that teach us being flexible is a blessing. If the disciples weren’t flexible when Jesus called them to ‘follow Him’ they would have missed out on being Jesus’ close friend (Mark 1:16-18.)
If I asked you to take a pipe cleaner and bend it into the number eight, you could do it, right? If I asked you to bend a popsicle/craft stick into the number eight, could you do it without breaking the craft stick? I couldn’t.
If David hadn’t been flexible to let the Lord lead him beside still waters, to rest in green pastures, to trust God for protection (Psalm 23), he wouldn’t have been the man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22.)
What does it mean for you and me to be flexible? We might want to stay home and play video games but being flexible encourages us there are other good opportunities we should check out. We might want to sit beside a certain someone at school, on the bus, or at a function but being flexible might make us a new friend.
Look for opportunities with me today to be flexible and let Jesus shape us into who He is growing and purposed us to be.
Father God, may You keep making us soft, open, flexible – not rigid to our own ideas and plans but able to bend allowing Your good and perfect will to be done in our lives and the lives of others, in Jesus’s Name. Amen.