STRETCHABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY

I Was Just Thinking About - - -

How does one handle day to day experiences, tensions, crises - with patience, sound reasoning or with panic? While we would love to be consistent and free from anxiety and panic, we can easily become short-circuited and respond with knee-jerk reactions.

For those who were born and reared in an earlier decade, Knickers and Knee Socks were common ware for boys. The sock size was determined by the shoe size and the measurement of one’s foot. When World War II came along, it allowed for a considerable amount of synthetics to enter the market place. When synthetic is used as an adjective, one can begin to understand that it was something “not genuine; a substance or material made artificially.” Nearly everything genuine was committed to war effort materials. Everything else was either rationed, unavailable or synthetic. The available data suggests that 1946 (approximately) men’s sock sizing changed. If the foot size required a Size 11 Sock, one could now buy socks that fit Size 10 to 13. How did that come about and how was it marketed? The expressions were that the socks were stretchable but just as durable. Stretchability meant the ability to extend the length of the sock for greater use by more individuals. Flexibility implied greater comfort by wearing that which was capable of being bent or extended without breaking or tearing. It also included the idea of it being adaptable and pliable.

For the Biblical Christian, there is a transferable concept and commitment that can be applied and utilized. First would be in the area of Anxiety and the words of Scripture urging one “Do Not Be Anxious/Do Not Worry.” Passages such as Matthew 6:25-34, Philippians 4:6 emphasize that nothing is gained through anxiety. Second, when it comes to being stretchable, flexible and adaptable, there is the reminder of the Apostle Paul and his ministry objective and commitment recorded in I Corinthians 9:19-24 (ESV), “For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”

Question: In all areas of your life, how Stretchable, Flexible and Adaptable are you? Depending upon your response, as a Biblical Christian - how effective are you? Consider these things with me!