How Flexible Are You?

 

No. I’m not talking about your body’s flexibility. I’m talking about your ability to change your plans at a moments notice.

The dictionary defines flexible as this:

capable of bending easily without breaking.

able to be easily modified to respond to altered circumstances.

ready and able to change so as to adapt to different circumstances.

Now, if you knew me a few years ago, you would have seen a woman with a plan. A woman with a routine. A tight schedule. I liked to plan my days and I liked them to stay exactly how I planned them. And when things changed and my plans were turned on their heads, well, it didn’t sit well at all with me, and often, to my shame, I let those around me know just how I felt!

When the girls were little and home-schooling was our way of life, I loved to have my little daily routine laid out and followed to a T. Being flexible was not a word I wanted in my vocabulary. Yes, I know, little ones have a way of forcing you to be flexible, because of unexpected sickness, constant accidents and messes to clean up etc. But as a general rule, I stuck to my plans.

I was not adaptable and ready to change to different circumstances. Not without an adult tantrum or meltdown of some sort.

Well, God had other plans. He decided that I needed to grow spiritually, and my attitude needed to change.

Isaiah 55:9 KJV - For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And as God’s ways are different than our ways, so are his methods of bringing about change.

I have written a lot about trials over the past few years and the reason why is that we grow through trials. And I think it’s important to be able to share with others the difficulties you face and the growth that occurs and the lessons learned.

In order for God to mold me and make me more like him, he had to send some hard things into my life that would upset my nicely laid plans.

He brought a very bad bout of pneumonia into my life and my health came crashing down. Followed by years of battling with chronic fatigue. During these difficult years, I had to learn to let go. I had to let God plan my days, because not only did I not have the mind and willpower to organize things, but I also didn’t have any energy to carry them out.

I had to let others into my life and learn to accept help.  Ouch! God was humbling me and teaching me that my plans were not always best and that I needed to fully rely on Him.

But, as is so often the case, God had to teach me these lessons again, as I failed to learn them the first time. He wanted me to be moldable and go with his flow, not my own, and yet I stubbornly resisted.

He wasn’t done with me yet. God put it on our hearts, as a family, to pack up our belongings, 8 years ago, and move from Queensland all the way to the Northern Territory, where we knew a total of 7 people, and only from meeting with them in a home for a Sunday morning service.

My once Mr Steady husband, that never did anything unpredictable, suddenly, it seemed, overnight, turned into a Mr Visionary that I hardly knew what to do with!

And do you know what? I think I have finally learnt to be flexible! Oh, I know I’m not perfect and never will be and I don’t have everything figured out, but I have discovered just how freeing being flexible is.

We started our own business after a couple years of a crazy lifestyle due to hubby’s work hours, and of course, life only got crazier. But along with the busyness of life, God taught me the blessing of being flexible and learning to lean on him and let him make the plans for my busy days.

Being more flexible has led to a better relationship with my husband as I am better able to meet his needs because I’m not so busy serving myself.

It has also helped me in the Lord’s work of serving here in the ministry God has put us in. The Lord has taught me to accept and love people from all walks of life. He has put a desire in my heart to teach and share and work with those I never expected to love and serve.

I often tell people that I don’t take things day by day, I take them minute by minute, because I have never known a life like I live now. At any given minute, my plans may change, and I may get a phone call that totally changes the trajectory of my day, and I have to be ready for it.

One minute, I may be sipping my cup of tea and reading a devotional or doing some study and the next minute, I am putting my work boots on, hopping in the truck and heading out to do a delivery, leaving the washing and the dishes undone, and the plans I had for the day float off into the air, never to be seen again. And this isn’t only occasionally. It happens almost EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. Some days, I feel like a human slinky!

And so, I find that now, as I start out my day, I lay it before the Lord, with open arms and ask him to order it as he sees fit and to help me to have a good attitude and be content. I don’t set my plans in concrete, and I try and focus on the things that I was able to get done each day, instead of the things I didn’t.

I’m finding that I am able to roll with the changes and not be blindsided by them, as in the past. I am able to respond instead of react in the heat of the moment. Sadly, sometimes I regress and find myself rebelling in my heart and then I have to get on my knees before the Lord and repent and open my arms once again, letting go of the plans held in my tightly closed fists.

The blessing of letting go and letting God lead is so much better than the days of trying to stick to my strict schedule, frustrated and discontentedly begrudging any deviations to my plans.

I love the promises in God’s Word that remind us of the blessing of following him.

Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Psalm 32:8 KJV - I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

God promises to go with us and to guide us and teach us. And he will do these things, but we have to learn to be flexible. We need to ride along in his current, not struggling to swim upstream in our own strength.

If you’re finding it difficult to let God plan your days, please know that becoming bendable, workable, adaptable and willing to fit into God’s mold, is such a blessing. It brings a freedom into your life like you’ve never experienced before. Every day is a surprise. You just never know where God is going to take you or who he is going to bring across your path.

James 4:7 KJV - Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

We have to learn to submit to God. Resist the devil that may come in the guise of your nicely laid plans, plans made without giving God a thought. The devil loves to see us in bondage. Slaves to our schedules. Plans made without God in mind. The devil doesn’t want to see us living with the freedom that being submitted to God brings.

There is a very comforting verse in Philippians.

Philippians 4:13 KJV - I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

I can do ALL THINGS. With God’s strengthening hand. Yes, you can learn to be flexible, with God’s help. It may take a few hard lessons, as in my case, but it will be worth it in the end. Not only will you be blessed, but so will those around you.

And so, I encourage you, if you struggle with control, open your hands and your hearts to God. Unclench your fists, lay out a blank to do list for the Lord to fill in and then practice contentment and give thanks for the things you were able to do, and don’t focus on the things undone.

If you give your days to God, he will place in them just what he sees fit, and he will leave out the unnecessary for that day’s work. God gives us 24 hours in a day, and although that never seems enough, it is enough. It is enough for what God has planned for us for that day. When we try to plan more into it than he desires, we run out of time.

Practice letting go and you will reap the blessings, overflowing and abundant!

Philippians 4:19 KJV

 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.