thoughts on the news of the day: flexibility

hmmm…..

            You have your day all planned out.  Meetings scheduled, lunches planned and evening activities all set to go.  Then a monkey wrench gets thrown into the plans and all of the sudden you have to be flexible.

            That happened to me today.  A member of our church has been in the hospital in Springfield, about a two hour drive from here and has suddenly taken a turn for the worse.  What does a pastor do?  The sermon still has to be written and there are all those phone calls to make. 

            Pastors for the most part have to be flexible.  We have constant interruptions during our day; in fact, it is hard sometimes to even plan at all. So I will stop what I am doing, drive to Springfield today, praying all the way, to be with a very special member and his family while we wait to see what happens next. 

            One definition of insanity is inflexibility.  I am not sure I completely agree with that, but its worth considering.  A mature person is able to roll with the punches and so is a sane person.  That’s not the same as being scattered and unorganized.  Flexibility is the willow tree bending in the wind.  Being flexible means that we are able to adapt to life’s changes.  And life does have its changes.  Some people don’t like change.  But the only thing we can count on in life is that it will change.

            I am praying that soon it will change for my hospitalized friend and that for his family the storms will not be so great as to break this tender reed of life that my friend is clinging to. 

            hmmm…..