‘The righteous will flourish like a palm tree.’ Psalm 92:12 (NIV)
Did you know that palm trees can lean right over in the wind until their tops are touching the ground – and yet spring right back when the high winds have passed? That’s flexibility! Brittle things are weak, they snap. Brittle people are weak too, prone to breaking! You may have heard the story of the leader who took on a historic building, and within a few weeks decided that the organ would be better in a different part of the building. He moved the organ, and the following week was shocked to see World War Three break out in his congregation! ‘But the organ is always that side’, one cried. ‘My grandmother used to play that organ’, another whined. ‘Now it’s too loud on the other side of the building’, said another. Tears and tantrums followed, until the beaten leader moved the organ back. Mischievously, he decided to move the organ over by just 12 inches per week, until 6 months later, it was exactly where he had placed it before. Only this time, the change had been so gradual that no one had noticed, or seemed to mind. ‘Oh, I always thought it would look nice there’, said one. ‘Glad you took my advice’, said another. Of course, it matters little where an organ is placed in any building, and had they been more flexible, no war would have broken out in the first place! There is a deep inflexibility that makes people weak. The only way to truly follow Yeshua for a whole lifetime is to be like that palm tree – flexible.