When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.”—St. Francis De Sales
Tonight the topic at our Dinner Church gathering is Fit for the King: Flexibility. In this series we compare 11 Components of Fitness to the kind of spiritual fitness God calls for in Scripture. So far, we’ve looked at cardiovascular and muscular fitness, body composition, and strength. You can go to social media pages to catch up on the series @warehouseotr. Today, in addition to a great meal and study, we’ll have chair massages and a giant game of twister. Not your grandparent’s bible study, LOL!
Flexibility is important in life, relationships, and our connection with God. So many people have been taught to be inflexible, to never bend to anyone. To BEND means to shape or force something into a curve; to deviate from a straight line in a specified direction; to incline the body downward from the vertical. Figuratively, to bend means to force or for Christians…to choose to submit; to interpret or modify (a rule) to suit oneself or somebody else); to direct or devote one’s attention or energies to a task. Have you ever chosen to bend so you or something or someone you love wouldn’t break? An old pastoral colleague said sometimes it’s better to be reconciled than to be right. So we bend.
Did you know that when we bow in prayer, we are also asking God to bend? David wrote, “I am praying to you because I know You will answer, O God. Bend down and listen as I pray.” (Psalm 17:6, NLT) “Bend down, O LORD, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help.” (Psalm 86:1, NLT) Some versions use the words “incline Your ear to me,” to convey the idea of God giving us a nod, bending Himself downward, and extending His royal scepter to us in our petitions, The psalmist cries out in Psalm 102:2, NLT, “Don’t turn away from me in my time of distress, Bend down to listen, and answer me quickly when I call to you.” As God bends toward us, He sometimes calls us to bend toward others in their distress. He also invites us to bend ourselves in submission to His will as Jesus did praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Willingness to bend more can do us good. French philosopher Albert Camus said, “Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.”
