When talking about resilience, I’ll sometimes use the illustration of a rubber ball that bounces back, or a rubber band that gets stretched then quickly returns to its original shape. These comparisons can be helpful. Who doesn’t want to lessen recovery time following a traumatic event, for example? However, from a forward-looking, growth-minded perspective resilience is so much more.
From a biblical worldview, we are called to participate in trials and suffering. As a result we are changed. When we allow ourselves to be shaped and formed in life’s struggles, we grow in resilience. In this way resilience takes us beyond a return to some original state or the status quo. It’s surrendering to a growth process. And in so doing, resilience becomes a transformative, dynamic work.
“Being resilient does not restore the status quo in your life, springing back to the way it was but, rather, what you have learned from tackling the adversity changes you for the better and helps you become more keenly aware of what is important in your life.” —Neenan and Dryden, Developing Resilience
As you go through hardship and struggle, how are you being changed? Are you becoming more aware of your values and priorities? Are you leveraging the learning opportunities and becoming a better person?More present? More qualified to equip and encourage others?
Questions for Reflection:
What circumstances might you be in right now that are touching on and quite possibly irritating you internally?
In what ways might those circumstances actually be refining some aspect of who you are?
And as you take a moment to consider those questions, also remember…
“Sometimes when you're in a dark place you think you've been buried, but you've actually been planted.” —Christine Caine, Undaunted
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