Blessed Are the Flexible

Early on in my military career I heard a saying that has stuck with me over the years. Sometimes it has stuck like glue, and other times it's stuck like water on a duck's back, but in some form or another, it has stuck.



It goes like this: 'Flexibility is the key to survival in the tactical environment'.

Today my Colorado/Palestine friend, Donna, reminded me of that axiom when she posted this variation on the theme - 'Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape!'

I was looking at a schedule, and thought that a certain project was due a week earlier than I had thought, (turns out it's not due for another 2 weeks). It's not even a big project, but it certainly would require some changes to my tentative schedule to get it done this week. And that's where the flexibility comes in. Its way too easy to get heartburn worrying over how to manage minor interruptions and deviations to plans, when all I really need to do is go with the flow. But because I 'hate' change, I have to keep reminding myself of this simple fact.

And there are certainly others who have had their plans changed. Daniel thought he was going to spend some time praying to God and he ended up in a den full of hungry lions. Instead of getting all upset, he just kept praying: all that changed was the location, and as we all know, we can pray anywhere. Paul Thought he was going to go to the province of Asia to preach the gospel, but he was prevented from doing so by the Spirit of Jesus. He kept preaching the gospel, just not in the place that he thought he was headed to.

Jonah had his plans changed too, he was happy where he was and God told him to go to Nineveh. That freaked him out, so he took all sorts of desperate measures - he ended up being thrown off the ship, swallowed by a sea creature, spit up on the beach, and adding insult to injury, ended up in Nineveh anyway.

It's good to make plans, but as all good 12 steppers know, it's not always wise to plan the results. I find that if I take things as they come, I might have to change my plans, but by staying flexible, it's a lot easier to not get bent out of shape. By staying flexible it's easier to survive.

And now that I've pontificated and waxed eloquent, I can take some time to freak out...

...see you in Nineveh!