Now that all the snow is gone we can evaluate the extent of the devastation left from last December’s incredible ice storm. From the thirty trees destroyed in my yard I will have firewood for years to come. I am intrigued by differences between the hardwoods and the soft pines. While a few pines were destroyed, the overwhelming loss was maple, oak, birch and cherry. It was the rigid hard woods that snapped while the soft woods bent under the load. It is obvious it was to the trees advantage to bend. Most of those that did survived.
Now comes the analogy. Some people, like trees, are rigid and unbending while others are open to change. I wanted to use the word compromise but it has negative connotations. Somehow the word compromise smacks of not holding one’s moral ground. That is not always necessarily so. Most of the time we are rigid is because we just don’t like change. If it isn’t something we have always done then there must be something wrong with it. In an attempt to justify not changing, we invent so called moral positions so we can hold to the faith of our fathers. In reality those occasions are few.
How often have we seen parents unwilling to bend a bit to accommodate their children only to lose them. The children move out as soon as they can and reject the rigidity of their folks. Please do not misunderstand. I am not talking about abandoning principles. As a matter of fact I am talking about living by principles instead of hard fast rules. Once we do that we often can step back from a situation and see that there are choices and options where we can yield a bit and still be true to ourselves and God.
Written by Roger Bothwell on April 8, 2009
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org