Resilience: We Keep Standing!

 Growing up, I had a few favorite toys. One of them was my Lemon Twist, a large plastic, rock-filled lemon-shaped ball that was tethered to a rope that I wore on one ankle and skipped over with the opposite foot.  Another was the board game Cootie, where the player who collected parts and built their bug-like creature first was the winner. But my favorite toy of all time had to have been my weighted plastic Bozo the clown. That thing kept me going and going!  No matter how hard I punched it, kicked it, held it down, or even sat on it— it would always pop back up. And if I wasn’t careful, it would pop me in the face!

I am grateful for the memory of that toy, because it reminds me of how a mature Christian responds to life. The apostle Paul speaks to this resilience in one of his letters to the Corinthian church.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So death is at work in us, but life in you.   —2 Corinthians 4:8–12 (ESV)

Resilience is part of our DNA as Christians. The things we endure don’t keep us down. Rather, they help us build our resilience so that we are able to get back up again. Sometimes we fall, sometimes we get knocked down, but here’s the reality: God has built within us resilience that allows us to get back up again by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can—and we do—get up. And we press on, as Paul says, toward the goal (Philippians 3:14). We also remember that we may be “struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:9). We remember who we are in Christ Jesus.

Let us be reminded that whether we step down, are knocked down, or we get kicked down, we must remember that resilience is part of our identity as the body of Christ.  We are weighted in Christ Jesus, our firm foundation. Because of this, nothing can completely wipe us away.  The power of the Holy Spirit will always allow us to bounce back.

 “For the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.” —Proverbs 24:16 (ESV)