Resilience Isn’t a Race

I get some of my best ideas to write on while I’m mowing my lawn. Today, it occurred to me that resilience isn’t a race—no matter how much we want to be resilient, growth is a slow process, and recognizing signs that we’ve grown can seem elusive.

Resilience can be one of the most discouraging of concepts because we compare it with standards that seem unattainable.

But there is encouragement in all this, especially when we consider resilience through a Christian lens. The encouragement is this:

The greatest peace and the best base for resilience is accepting WHERE we’re at right now.

Throughout my life, I’ve sensed God continually reminding me, “Relax, your striving for perfection is futile.”

As I heard many years ago, we have nothing left to prove and nothing more to gain. To have our salvation is all we need in the context of eternity, both here and now and in life ever after.

It’s wonderful to know that we can PRACTICE resilience by simply accepting our present moment, not needing to be anyone else other than ourselves. This is a gift of peace that can only be practiced.

There is wisdom in the simplicity of SITTING with ourselves, at times bereft of understanding for what we’re feeling, but in the same breath, able to smile contently, or simply shed a tear, and every emotion between or otherwise.

Faith meets resilience. Faith, the practice of resilience. Faith agrees that things are not what we would have them to be, but with the strength to continue onward in hope that things might change eventually whilst contentedly accepting the situation as it is.