The Grace of Flexibility (01/04/2026)

Yesterday was to be a big and busy day at my home. I was expecting seven family members to come and help with packing up Christmas and hauling it back to its storage space in the basement. And then we were going to gather round the table for a spaghetti feast and fellowship. But before the day was over, it was like our world was a snow globe that got royally shaken. Thank God for the grace of flexibility.

First my oldest grandson texted that he’d just been diagnosed with strep throat and wouldn’t be able to come. So, I adjusted the spaghetti recipe in my head for two less. At 8:15 a.m. my daughter texted to say she wasn’t able to come because she needed to travel to pick up her son. She sent her regrets. I called her to tell her that her son came first, not to worry. And I decreased my spaghetti recipe and began rethinking the packing up Christmas project.

Then around nine, my oldest daughter called to tell me she thought she had the flu or food poisoning. I sympathized with her, told her to take care of herself and her husband and not worry about the project, it would get done. As I hung up, I tore up my notes on the spaghetti ingredients needed for 9 and took out my recipe for 4. And then I started taking ornaments off the tree and looking for the right box for each.

Within an hour, my husband and I had all the Christmas decorations boxed, crated, or wrapped and ready for hauling to the basement. As I worked gathering the different pieces, I smiled to myself and said, “Thank you, LORD, for the grace of flexibility.”

There’s the old and familiar saying about how we make plans and then life unfolds differently. Flexibility is a grace I am grateful for and find myself thanking the LORD for frequently. Much of my life has been about learning to adapt and opening myself to flexibility. Because of my height, the majority of the world is beyond my reach, but I have found that if I concede to my inability and simply admit I need help, it usually materializes. It might not come to be the way I planned, but no one knows that except me and the LORD who got me through and the one the LORD sent to help me.

“I Did It My Way” is a great song, and whenever I hear it, I applaud Sinatra’s attitude, but I also know that life sends us challenges daily and navigating life requires strength, the kind that allows one to set aside pride and seek help when needed. And navigating life also requires being flexible, being able to adapt, to amend, to bend.

One of my favorite sayings in the writing of the saints is from “Moralia- the Study of the Book of Job – Book III” by Saint Gregory the Great. It is simple: “He who refuses to bend can never lift.” We are called to lift one another, to help one another, to accompany one another, and if there’s one thing that 75 years of life have taught me, it is that it will require the grace of flexibility fueled by love.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.