DTEB, “Cultivating a Flexible Heart”

Matthew 12 The Message (MSG)

In Charge of the Sabbath

12 1-2 One Sabbath, Jesus was strolling with his disciples through a field of ripe grain. Hungry, the disciples were pulling off the heads of grain and munching on them. Some Pharisees reported them to Jesus: “Your disciples are breaking the Sabbath rules!”

3-5 Jesus said, “Really? Didn’t you ever read what David and his companions did when they were hungry, how they entered the sanctuary and ate fresh bread off the altar, bread that no one but priests were allowed to eat? And didn’t you ever read in God’s Law that priests carrying out their Temple duties break Sabbath rules all the time and it’s not held against them?

6-8 “There is far more at stake here than religion. If you had any idea what this Scripture meant—‘I prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritual’—you wouldn’t be nitpicking like this. The Son of Man is no lackey to the Sabbath; he’s in charge.”

I have been struggling with flexibility of late.  No, that’s not the truth.  I’ve been struggling with flexibility all my life.  I was a stick in the mud, addicted to my own little thises and thats by the time I was seven.

Here of late, it has been my neck that has been a primary focus in my quest for flexibility.  When I try to turn my neck, I find it very difficult to do so.  This is a problem because, unlike young mothers of small children, I do not have eyes in the back of my head.  When I do move my neck, my joints make a very interesting grinding sound.

So, I’ve committed myself to the discipline of flexibility.  It isn’t going to be easy.  I’m good at tunnel vision.  I have been practicing it for decades, and have gotten really good at it.  Peripheral vision?  Not so much.

I am going to practice at least three times a day.  Here is what I plan to do:

• Turn my head upward a little further than is entirely comfortable.
• Turn my head downward a bit too much.
• Look to the left until it hurts a bit.
• Look to the right until that hurts a bit.

Rinse and repeat!

Of course, there is more at stake than my neck.  There is my heart, and mind, and soul.  Cultivating flexibility in all areas of my life is important.  Jesus talked about flexibility to some ancient religious leaders who thought they had everything figured out.

“There is far more at stake here than religion. If you had any idea what this Scripture meant—ʻI prefer a flexible heart to an inflexible ritualʼ—you wouldn’t be nitpicking like this” (The Message, Matt 12:6-7).

Now, of course, I am quite flexible—when things don’t matter to me.  But there’s the rub: Way too many things matter to me.  And I don’t usually stop to ask some important questions.  Why does this matter so much to me?  Should it?  Does it matter to anyone else?  Should it?  Does it matter to God?

A good article on flexibility (and when not to be flexible) is at https://www.biblewise.com/living/articles/the-power-flexibility.php, accessed 02-12-2020).  The whole thing is good, and would repay you reading it—and a re-reading by me.  Here are a couple of paragraphs from Marjorie F. Eddington, that I thought well worth passing along:

“It makes much more sense to be flexible — to “bend” rather than “break.” All we need to do is look at which trees survive storms — the ones that bend. And yet, sometimes we feel so compelled to hold onto our own way of thinking or acting; we are so convinced that our way is the right way; and we refuse to compromise at all. In such moments, we find ourselves at the point of breaking.

Some people even do break … and then they have to figure out how to put back the pieces of their lives (which is totally possible when we yield everything to God). Other people bend at every little thing and never stand up. This isn’t good either, for these people aren’t expressing the strength and dominion God has given them. They end up feeling deflated or insignificant, even worthless.”