‘I’m not trying to be difficult,’ the receptionist protested,
repeating the instructions she’d been given.
My patience was fraying. I’m a regular at the doctor’s
surgery, where the tests are done every few weeks. I’ve never had to do it the
way she now insisted on. We reached a resolution of sorts without me losing my
rag. Thank you, Lord.
Sometimes structures and rules, set up for good reason, chafe
and block us from doing the simplest of things. They’re inflexible. They may
have been put in place to protect from poor outcomes, but our circumstances are
different, and it feels like they’re designed to impede common sense.
I’ve just come out of two weeks’ worth of wrangling with a
major US bank because of such inflexible constrictions.
God has given us structures and rules, first in the ‘set in
stone’ Ten Commandments, then embodied in the loving embrace of Jesus. Jesus
said he didn’t come to abolish the commandments but to fulfil them.
Jesus fulfils the Commandments through every cell of his
body. He sees each of us with the eyes of love. It isn’t that he bends the
rules or downgrades God’s holy standards. It’s that he, in wisdom and love,
reaches out to us in unconditional love, drawing us into his presence and
revealing, piece by piece, his better way. Flexibility and firmness combine in
perfect love.
May I surrender to that pursuing love today, listening to
his tender whisper and responding to trying circumstances as he would.
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