Faith and Flexibility

A man’s heart plans his ways, but the Lord directs his steps. ~Proverbs 16:9

Earlier this week, I was cleaning the toilet, taking down a mildew ridden shower curtain and throwing it in the wash, and other general scrubbing. Not because that was my plan. But because my plan got thwarted.

As a Pastor’s wife, I’m learning to deal with thwarted plans more often. I don’t mind terribly. Errrr … usually. Unless I’ve just set a big meal on the table and Shaun has to run out the door. That can be irritating and disappointing.

Most of my life, I’ve been taught to plan and stick to the plan because that qualifies as discipline and the Bible commands discipline and order. This is true. We are to do things decently and in order. Spiritual disciplines are a must if we want to grow our faith. Other disciplines are a must if we want to keep a job, run a house, raise kids. But here’s the thing:

Christianity is not about living by a rule book. It’s about living in a relationship with our Savior. 

Our need for structure is real. Especially for people who have the tendency to whittle away time and energy on useless activities. But in all our orderly planning and structure, I fear we lose flexibility. More than that, I fear we lose freedom and ability to love and be loved by our Savior, because our relationship with Him becomes rule based, rather than faith based. We take working out our own salvation too far, and in all our working and striving, we forget that God is the one who works in us to will and to do in the first place (Phil. 2:12-13). We forget the Source of our strength. And we lose sight of the fact that we are working for His good pleasure. Not for our glory. Or money. Or notoriety. Or whatever god our heart chooses to worship.

Every day, I have a mental plan. I say, “This is what I’ll do. This is where I’ll go.” And very, very often, God will say, “No. This is what you’ll do. This is where you’ll go.” If I let myself, and if my health was better, my tendency would be to become a workaholic. I come from a long line of folks who pride themselves on back breaking, blister oozing self-sufficiency, and it’s easy for me, when interruptions come along, to say, “Outta my way. Work trumps all.” That’s why we have to balance “working out our salvation” with “love your neighbor as yourself.” We have to read the entire chapter of Philippians 2, not just the part about how hard we work. We are to be unified through humility. We are to exalt Christ and not ourselves. We are to be light bearers, doing all things without complaining and disputing – even if those things are not what we had penciled in our calendars.

It’s hard. So my plans earlier in the week was to grill hamburgers for Shaun on a lovely Spring and visit with him over lunch on the back deck. But was I going to say that our homey little date was more important than a young girl’s questions about Mormonism? Of course not. Go, honey. Answer that girl’s questions. I’ll clean the potty and pray for clarity and finely tuned hearts.

God is our Father. And fathers boss around their children. Children don’t always understand, but children always need to obey. So, in all our planning to make ourselves more godly, let’s not forget that being godly often means setting aside our plans and wishes, hope and dreams, and following a complicated, unpredictable, often times confusing, but all-knowing, all-wise God.

It’s a matter of faith and flexibility.

And it just comes down to who or what is Lord.