Always A Need For Flexibility

When it comes to being flexible, often you hear quotes like:

But often when it gets to be the time that you actually need to be flexible, it’s a lot more complicated. It’s very easy to want to resist sudden change. It’s always difficult when you have a plan in mind and then suddenly that plan needs to get put by the wayside. However, most often if you try to resist the change, you end up having a greater struggle than if you’re willing to adjust to the new situation.

Dan had to learn early on in his EMS career that he needed to be flexible on every call. Often when people make a call to 911, they are not very clear and articulate because they are in a panic.  Often the information that’s provided to the dispatcher is not clear, and sometimes even wrong.

One day at work he heard a call come in on the radio for a child who was having an allergic reaction to a bee sting, so an ambulance that was close to the house responded. Shortly after that ambulance arrived at the patient’s house, a second ambulance (the one Dan was working) was dispatched for the same reason to the same house. This was very odd because normally one ambulance should be enough for that type of call.

Upon arriving to the house Dan was able to quickly put the pieces together as to what had happened. As it turned out, the child was outside playing and got stung by a bee. Hours later she told her mom about the sting and her mom panicked believing that her daughter was about to die and hurried to get an Epi Pen. In her haste, the mother accidently stuck the Epi Pen into her own hand, instead of the daughter; she injected the Epinephrine into herself, not her daughter. When the first ambulance crew arrived, they ended up treating the mother who was having an anxiety attack which was fed by 0.15mg of Epinephrine. Dan then had to treat the daughter, who was not having an allergic reaction, but rather having an anxiety attack which was fed by her mother’s anxiety.

This story from several years ago is an example as to how flexibility was required from all the emergency workers that responded to the call, as is often the case in that profession. While they went to the call with the information that there was an allergic reaction, they needed to be prepared for a change of plans.

Similarly, in life, the information provided or our own plans turn out to be very different than what actually happens; and often this is entirely due to circumstances outside of our own control. However, we can rest assured, because while many circumstances will occur that are outside of our control, we know that the Lord is sovereign and loving. And while something may look like a mistake to us, we know it is never a mistake to him. He has a perfect plan, and the closer we are to him and the more we understand his character, the less we will be concerned by a sudden need to be flexible. We trust that all things are already in his plan and we are in his loving care.