Flexible?!

One thing every student, and every person for that matter, needs to know in order to cope with every day living is how to be FLEXIBLE.  Being flexible is what enables one to be able to adapt to the ever changing circumstances and whatever environment they may face.  In our modern day, fast paced and increasingly existential society, flexibility is ever more important.  Failing to be flexible will limit your opportunities, lead to greater difficulty and could even bring about tragedy.  Please be flexible and consider thinking about this with me further. . . .

Being flexible does not necessarily mean you lose your voice or influence in any situation.  You can and should still stand for whatever you believe is right and best.  The fact is that we all need to do a much better job at communicating and listening (c.f. my 12-31-09 and 01-14-10 Blog, “ONE WAY Communication” and my 04-03-09 Blog, “The Tragedy of NOT Listening”).  We also need to do better at being civil in any discussion or disagreement.  Still, there are chains of authority where we each have to submit and thus bend in what we ourselves would ideally like to see.

Certainly, Virginia Tech and the greater Blacksburg community have had to learn how to cope and even be more flexible with all of the tragedy and changes forced upon this particular community over the past few years.  In the fall before the 04-16-07 massive tragedy that so impacted this community and the world, there was the fatal shooting of a local hospital security guard and a deputy sheriff near the Virginia Tech Campus.  Bomb threats surrounded this time as well as just before the 04-16-07 Tragedy.  The following fall, there were a number who had just attended the memorial dedication that had to be sent to hospitals, sickened through carbon monoxide poisoning.  Another tragedy—a beheading murder—occurred on the Virginia Tech campus on 01-21-09.  That fall, two VT students were murdered at a nearby campground and then another VT student was killed while attending a concert in Charlottesville.  The roof collapse of the Blacksburg High School gym earlier this year did not physically injure anyone, but hundreds, if not thousands of people’s schedules were altered due to the unusual school hours in sharing the middle school building.  Learning to be flexible and cope has been a key to prevailing through all of these unexpected events.

My own life has been directly impacted and forever changed from several of these specific events.  I have had to learn to be flexible and trust that GOD was ultimately in control of all that was happening to me and in my Blacksburg community.  Some have not learned to cope so well (and I have often even become a victim of many others’ lack of flexibility).  It is my faith in the sovereignty of GOD and the promises of His Word that reassures me and gives me the confidence to bend and be as flexible as I can without breaking any of His commands.

Friend, are you a flexible person?  Do you complain about the circumstances in your life or trust GOD to work in them and then do your part to find His way of prevailing through them?  GOD is somewhat flexible in His Mercy and Grace toward us because of taking out the demands of His Justice upon the Person of Jesus Christ.  The LORD is the Ultimate authority and there will be no flexibility in His Justice for those rejecting the Person and substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  When you personally receive Him you can then be more flexible and patient with others and extend His Mercy and Grace.  Be FLEXIBLE and learn to prevail!  J