Learning to be a resilient person can take you through a pandemic and more …

During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden attempted to convince America we’re about to enter into a “dark winter.”

That sounds horrible, frightening, and not something any of us would want considering the troublesome year we have faced so far.

Instead of forecasting darkness, let me encourage you that any of us — all of us — can learn to become people who are resilient to any “storm” (adversity) that comes our way.

Pastor Roy Fowler tells a story that gives a simple demonstration of resilience:

A woman that had boarded a plane to visit family struggled to wedge her suitcase into the tight overhead bin. She eventually triumphantly closed the bin door and took her seat. When the plane landed, she got up, opened the bin and found her suitcase was stuck so she began yanking and tugging on it. The suitcase didn’t budge. A man asked if he could help, and she replied, “It’ll come. I got it in, there has to be a way to get it out.”

Her calmness and confidence inspired me as I watched. She just knew it was coming out of there. She showed such a resilience as she put her hands on her hips and thought about it. Then she began again to dislodge the suitcase which she did after about 10 minutes and most everyone was off the plane. Resilience is the ability to adapt to challenging, stressful, or upsetting circumstances, recovering enough to regroup, refocus, and find ways back into a positive frame of mind.

The woman’s reaction to her stuck luggage was a beautiful example of one of the American Psychological Association’s tips for cultivating resilience: “Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems.”

Many people have seen 2020 as a growing problem, for some a seemingly insurmountable one. But even the challenges of this year can be faced and overcome with a persistently resilient attitude. And it’s a persistently resilient attitude that Jesus encourages of us, and helps us understand this critical truth:

Central to successfully being resilient through the adversities we experience is making Him the foundation of our lives.

Jesus explained this truth like this:

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash,” Matthew 7:24-27.

With Jesus Christ as the foundation on which our lives are built and lived, we gain the capacity to endure all the trials and troubles life may throw at us, from a global pandemic to any other challenge. That doesn’t mean things will be easy, you may find yourself praying to be a potato, like the woman in this snippet from Guideposts:

While my husband Frank and I were living in Pakistan many years ago, our six-month-old baby died. An old Punjabi who heard of our grief came to comfort us. “A tragedy like this is similar to being plunged into boiling water,” he explained. “If you are an egg, your affliction will make you hard-boiled and unresponsive. If you are a potato, you will emerge soft and pliable, resilient and adaptable.” It may sound funny to God, but there have been times when I have prayed, “O Lord, let me be a potato.”

Let’s take a quick look at a summary of some of common characteristics of a resilient person:

Self-awareness. The better we understand who we are in Christ, the better we understand that “… God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline” (2 Tim. 1:7) and the more capable we are to manage our emotions and think rationally instead of becoming gripped with fear.

Sense of self-control. When Christ is the foundation of our lives, we better understand that while we may not be able to control all of the circumstances we face in life, we can always control our response to our circumstances. In fact, we can learn to be proactive in the midst of life’s storms rather than simply being reactive to what might happen in life.

Realistic with a dollop of faith. No one gets through life without challenges, but with Jesus as our foundation for living, we can have faith that we can be overcomers. Jesus Himself gave us this “realistic with a dollop of faith” attitude when He said this: “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Hope. Resilient people are people who never give up hope. With Jesus Christ as the foundation we live our lives on, we have an enduring hope through Him. “Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls …” Hebrews 6:16-19a.

Resilient people are persistently grateful. Resilience is stoked by maintaining an attitude of gratitude, never forgetting what you do have and actively expressing gratitude for it.

Resilient people are flexible and adaptable. The more rigid you are against change, the more likely your troubles can break you. Trials and difficulties usually mean some level of change must be made; the resilient person is flexible and willing to adapt without compromising their faith. When you look at the lives of people like Daniel, Joseph, Paul and many others in the Bible, you find they were resilient through great trials while being flexible and finding an appropriate way of adapting to their circumstances.

Resilient people develop problem-solving skills. You can sit by and let circumstances serve up the worst-case scenarios to you, or you can apply yourself to learn problem-solving skills so you can have some influence for better outcomes.

Identifying as a survivor rather than a victim. People who see themselves as victims of life’s circumstances passively sit by and take whatever life serves up. People who see themselves as survivors of life’s struggles engage proactively and battle with the power, love, and self-discipline God has gifted them with (2 Tim. 1:7).

Able to ask for help. Resilient people know getting through life will often require the help and support of others and aren’t shy about seeking it.

Resilient people rely on faith. Resilient people know life is bigger and harder than they can handle on their own, but they know (believe, trust, have faith) that with Christ, all things are possible.

Let me add to this that this is a time where any of us can benefit by a deeper understanding of the topics of adversity and resilience. Let me encourage you take make some time to add to your reading of this post the reading of additional posts that could be helpful or insightful for you. Check out the following previously written posts listed below by clicking on them:

“The trouble with adversity …”
“A half dozen ways adversity will strike your life …”
“How to build resilience to adversity …”
“A promise of resilience …”
“The essential fuel for resilience …”

Scotty