God's Flexibility

By John Stallings

Flexible-- “Characterized by a ready capacity to adapt to new, different, or changing requirements.”

                                                                          

Years ago Frank Lloyd Wright was given the impossible task of building the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo.

     No comparable construction job had ever before been undertaken. With patience he laid plans for the immense building in the land of earthquakes & terrible tremors.

    After carefully reviewing the situation, he found that eight feet below the surface of the ground lay a 600 foot bed of soft mud. Why not float the great structure on this & in some way make it absorb the shock of earthquakes? After four years of work & amid ridicule & skeptical onlookers, the most difficult building project in the world was completed, & soon the day arrived that tested it completely.

     The worst quake in 52 years came. Buildings all around tumbled & fell in ruins, but the Imperial Hotel stood, because its flexibility enabled it to adjust to the tremors of the earth.

     Bridges have expansion joints to keep them from snapping in cold weather. Airplane wings & sky-scrapers have a built- in ability to sway (the top of a large building can sway eight feet.) Outboard motors have sheer-pins that will absorb the shock of hitting an object in the water. Trees & plants bend in the wind in order to keep from breaking. Vehicles have shock absorbers. Such is the power of flexibility. In the ebb & flow of life, rigidity& inflexibility is the enemy of most things.

Flexible people have strong values, good- humor & optimism. They are generally people of ingenuity, an unshakable faith that life is meaningful, & an uncanny ability to improvise. They are usually taught early that, where their lives are concerned, “if they don’t do it, nobody will.”

     For a moment replace the word “forgiveness” with the word “flexible.” To be honest, isn’t an unforgiving spirit a form of inflexibility? Aren’t rigidity & an unwillingness to change our mind & heart at the root of un-forgiveness?

      Have you ever wondered why forgiveness is important? It’s because God knows we are all made of clay & are such imperfect creatures we will surely hurt & fail each other repeatedly (though not always intentionally.) So forgiveness is absolutely mandatory if we are to live in harmony with each other. Without forgiveness, practically everything good evaporates.

     Often we can forgive & overlook what outsiders & strangers do to hurt us quicker than those closest to us. We have this backwards, because we can easily avoid those not so close to us, but if family members hurt us, we have to continue living together. Therefore forgiving is even more vital for the family.

     Flexibility & change are hard for us creatures of habit. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a church member say the words, “That’s the way we’ve always done it-why should we change? In Matthew 15:3, Jesus condemned the Pharisees for honoring their traditions more than biblical principles.

 Though biblical principles of holiness & morality never change, other things are constantly in a state of flux.

      We don’t necessarily get new revelations but we certainly receive new illuminations on the old revelations, with the flow of time. For instance, there are always new ideas on education, evangelism, church growth, teaching methods, & new ideas about how to work harmoniously together. We can’t depend on old formulas, traditions or organizational structures but must constantly look to God for His wisdom.

Thank God He’s unchangeable in His wisdom, mercy, power, justice, goodness, forgiveness, holiness & truth,

BUT LET’S LOOK AT SOME WAYS GOD IS, --& HAS BEEN FLEXIBLE.

We don’t usually think of God as flexible, because it sounds too much like compromise. Usually when we think of God, we think of words such as immutable & unchangeable. We think of verses like, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday today & forever.” Obviously all that is true, but at the same time flexibility is one of God’s most awesome characteristics. To some that might sound downright sac religious. If that shocks you, then to hear me say that God is also “humble,” will probably also shock you.

     One of the most famous incidences of God’s flexibility is in Exodus 32. God is about to put an end to His people Israel for worshipping a golden calf Aaron made for them. In a way I can be a little sympathetic with Israel. Nobody likes to be stood up.  To have someone to tell you they’ll meet you somewhere at twelve noon & you sit there for an hour waiting for them is an awful experience. Moses had been up on the mountain for 40 days & nights & they got tired of waiting for him. It seemed to the people that Moses & God both were going to be “no-shows.” They were so irked & confused that they just gave up on Moses & God, so they “replaced” them with a golden calf.

      God was so steamed with their idol worshipping that He called the people “stiff-necked & His anger was hot against them.” He made Moses an offer. He would let Moses live & kill the people, but Moses stood up to God & implored Him to spare them. Moses even offered his own life in exchange for Israel.

    It’s easy for us to condemn Israel but we can look around & see idols all around us that people have replaced God with in their lives. People replace God with idols of homes, cars, bank accounts, drugs, etc

The Bible tells us, “then God repented of the evil which He thought to do to His people.” Wouldn’t you agree that this is a vivid illustration of God’s flexibility?

In 1 Samuel 8:1-9 there’s another example of God’s loving flexibility. The people hadn’t been in the Promised Land long when they told Samuel, “We want a king like all the other people have.”  The immediate reason they wanted a king wasn’t all that wrong. God had provided judges for them but the judges had turned out to be a sorry lot, some of them were greedy, not fair, & were taking bribes. Samuel was a righteous judge but his sons weren’t like him. The people made their request for a king year after year.

ISRAEL SLOWLY BROKE FAITH WITH GOD & BACKSLID.

They slowly broke their intimacy with the God who brought them out of Egypt. Their relationship grew sour. This reminds me of how our human friendships can gradually grow sour, or how a once wonderful marriage can grow into misery. Relationships grow & flourish on time together, goodwill, forgiveness & unselfishness, but all at once something happens & you find your relationship disintegrating before your eyes. Maybe it starts with one bad incidence & snow-balls from there. It’s all so gradual. The friend may become your enemy. The marriage which once soared into the heavenlies now looks nothing but ordinary.

     That’s what happened between God & Israel. A gravitational pull worked on God’s people then, just as it does today. Israel wanted to “belong to God” but they also wanted to be free. They wanted the “box of candy” but they didn’t want to exclusively be “His girl.” Is any of this sounding familiar? In truth Israel’s only hope of being free was to do it God’s way & not have a king to rule over them, but they saw having a Monarch over them as freedom. It’s like a young man joining the Army so he can “get out of this house & be my own man.” Or a young girl getting married “so she can finally be free of all restraints.”

     The first king they got was “The sexiest man alive.” He was a tall, charming, modest, apparently perfect man, a wonderful candidate for royalty, but it wasn’t long until cracks developed in his character. His name was Saul. Think of the way God was able to switch His plans from Saul to David. David, no matter how great he came to be, wasn’t Gods first choice. David was strictly a “second stringer.” Samuel told Saul,  God desired to establish His covenant with your house forever, but Saul flunked out & God moved His plan forward with David.

      Sadly, along with royalty came idolatry. Even wise Solomon wasn’t able to keep the idolatry out of Israel. He married foreign women who brought their Gods with them into Israel. That’s why God didn’t want Israel to have Kings. Ideas are so powerful they can transform themselves into Gods if we’re not careful.

LOOK AT GOD’S RESOURSEFULLNESS & HIS HUMILITY.

     Look at how flexible & forgiving God was. God took Israel’s rejection of Him a turned it into grace. We read in Luke 2 that Jesus was born in the City of David. David was Israel’s greatest king. God didn’t want Israel to have a king, but didn’t give up on Israel for wanting one. He sent His son through David’s legal family line.

God’s humility is evident here.

     The prestige of King David’s ancestry added to the prestige of God’s Son even though God didn’t want Israel to have a king at all. Using the line of Davidic kings, God once again assumed the position of king over His people. How wise of God to regain His place of loving royal authority over His people using their own willfulness, turning it on its head. “The king of all kings” would come from the line of kings Israel wanted instead of God as their king. How wise, flexible & forgiving God is.

No wonder God is at home in a humble & contrite heart. God is humble!

     In John 13 Jesus realized that His time with His disciples was short. After they had eaten together, he took a towel & began to wash their feet. Usually when someone nears death they want to share something precious with their family & friends, something that will be valuable & of use. You would think that Jesus would have wanted to sit the disciples down & teach them deep & useful truths that would sustain them in years to come. But Jesus felt the most important last lesson he could impart to His followers was to humble himself, & show a servants hearts. The future of His Church was at stake & only humble hearts could carry His gospel.

In John 21:15-19 Jesus is asking Simon Peter if he loves him. It is often noted by Bible teachers that Jesus was giving Peter an opportunity to give three affirmations of love to offset his three denials of Him. It’s also interesting that in this questioning of Peter, the first two times Jesus used the Greek word Agape, which is the highest form of Godly Love. Peter answered both times in the affirmative. Then the third time Jesus asks the same question but He changed the word love from Agape to Philia, which is weaker word for love, “really meaning do you admire or like me?” Jesus was able to see Peter’s heart & was willing to be flexible with him in spite of knowledge that at that moment, all he had was Philia, An admiring, friendship love for Him.

The story of Joseph has always intrigued me. He was sold into slavery by his jealous & hateful brothers, to a passing caravan & it finally deposited him in Egypt. Through a series of events including a false rape charge, jail term & finally the interpretation of a dream that haunted the ruler of Egypt, Joseph was elevated to a position of power & influence within the Egyptian government. He was given the job of rationing food during a severe famine that plagued the Middle East. Even Canaan where his family lived was being decimated by hunger.

    Ultimately Joseph was able to save his entire family from starvation. When Joseph’s father died the brothers feared that Joseph would use that time to wreak vengeance on them but Joseph uttered the famous words “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”  Joseph knew God well enough to know about His forgiveness & flexibility in even the most severe circumstances.

He had learned that God can bring good out of bad, strength out of weakness & meaning out of misery. Joseph didn’t see the miraculous hand of God for a long time & he spent years gazing into the dense fog of anguish. I’m sure that sometimes the fog was so thick he could barely see tomorrow but he understood that nothing can happen to us so bad that God can’t use it for our good. Had not Joseph had the qualities of resilience, adaptability & flexibility he would have snapped & became so bitter he wouldn’t have been usable to do such a momentous work for God.

Our God, who took the chaos of unshaped matter & created this glorious world we live in, can also take the raw material of our lives & shape a life of usefulness to Him.

In Jeremiah 18, we read the story of Jeremiah going down to the potter’s house.

     In the last twenty or years of my parent’s lives, they operated their own ceramic shop. From raw ceramic clay, they would mold & create different pieces of beautiful ceramic, using a spinning wheel, oven or kiln, & a process much like the primitive potters used. They would make lamps & bowls, usually something very functional, & then paint them all sorts of beautiful colors. Many of their friends still have those pieces today.

    God is teaching Jeremiah a lesson from the potter’s wheel for the nation Of Judah in a time when they had become sinful & distant from God. The nation had become unwilling to obey God so he has to put them on his “wheel,” to mar them & remake them. As part of His molding, God used the nation of Babylon to drive them out of the Promised Land.

    You & I are clay in the hands of God & he is molding & shaping us. Being clay is humbling. God originally formed man out of the dust of the earth & He’s still forming us all individually. All we need is trust that the one who made us will form us in a way that will be best for us.

Can you look back over the years & see how the Lord has changed you? A lump of clay might fall of the potter’s wheel, or be set aside by the potter & if so it would just remain a non-descript lump of clay. It certainly couldn’t mold itself into any useable vessel,

    Likewise you & I may sometimes get tired of being on God’s wheel & grow restless & want to run from the wheel God has us on. However, without the benefit of being in the hands of the potter, we would remain a shapeless lump of clay. Even though God pounds, prods & pushes us, when He’s finished we’ll be “vessels of honor.” Just as the scene at the potter’s house God showed Jeremiah, our potter will apply pressure to shape us, but he does it caringly & gently, & when he’s through, we’ll be the person who is useful to our Creator.

    I recently heard a psychologist say that the worst thing a survivor of 9/11 can say is, “I’m a victim or survivor of 9/11.” He went on to say that when a person says that, they’re saying that they define themselves as a victim. Many people when asked about their background will quickly tell you they are “from a broken family,” a “Rape victim,” or a “cancer survivor.” This in no way to deprecate what these folk have been through, but it’s dangerous to let our problems define us. Why not allow God to reshape, even “reinvent us” as a victor rather than a victim? I don’t think David, Joseph, Jesus or Paul were victims, even considering all they went through.  Roman 8:37 says …we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

I read a story about a man who had a beautiful home on a river. Each year the river would overflow its banks and flood his house drowning all his chickens. He didn’t want to sell his beautiful home but his main concern was that each year all his chickens were killed. One day a little boy walked by & got to talking to the man about his dilemma & the man told him about the tragic loss of his chickens. The boy thought for a minute then looked at the man & asked question that once & for all solved the man’s problem, “why don’t you try ducks?” A little flexibility had saved the day.

In 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 the Apostle Paul shows great flexibility. He says,”

      “For though I am free from all men, yet have I made myself servant to all that I might gain some. And unto the Jews I am a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without the law, as without the law (being without the law to Christ) that I might gain them that are without the law. To the weak become I as weak; I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some.

      I love the adaptability of the boy who was playing “The World Series” in his backyard. With his baseball in his hand & his bat on his shoulder, he was overheard to announce, “I’m the world’s greatest hitter.” He would toss the ball in the air but when it came down he couldn’t hit it so he’d say, “strike one, strike two & strike three” all the while declaring “I’m the worlds greatest hitter.”

Finally when all the “world’s greatest hitter” could do was strike out, the boy dropped his head in disbelief, & then suddenly he jerked up his head & smiled as he declared: “I’m the world’s greatest pitcher.”

Maybe life has knocked us down & taken the wind & will out of us. Maybe our dreams are shattered & we are struggling to keep hope alive. Maybe our “hitting” has turned out dismally. Then we must decide if we will live in disappointment & be defined by our problem, or flex with God & be “reinvegrnted” as so many of the greatest have done & realize that life may really be about;--BEING THE WORLD GREATEST PITCHER.

In Acts 1:14, the 120 went to the upper room to wait for the promise of the Father.  The scripture said they prayed “with prayer & supplication.” The word supplication comes from the root word “SUPPLE.” What the disciples were saying to God was that they were willing to become anything He wanted them to become. When we look at the way they spread the gospel to the ends of the earth & what most of them endured for Christ before they died, they indeed were supple.

Hebrew 5:8 is a verse that has always baffled me; And though he were a son yet learned He obedience through the things which He suffered.

That the Captain of My Salvation had to learn through suffering seems strange but its there & it’s true, so God expected His own Son to be pliable & flexible as walk the same paths we as His disciples must walk.

I remember a chorus we used to sing when I was a boy & I still love it.

HAVE THINE OWN WAY LORD, HAVE THINE OWN WAY.

THOU ART THE POTTER, IAM THE CLAY.

MOLD ME & MAKE ME, AFTER THY WILL,

WHILE I AM WAITITNG, YEILDED & STILL.

Blessings,

John