The Power of Resilience

 

I have been reading about resilience lately, both for my own sake and because it's become quite the topic in our culture.  

As part of its "Stress Less" mental health and wellness program, NPR recorded a podcast about the Resilience Challenge conducted by Northwestern University.  The challenge was to take 20 minutes out of your day to follow a guided reflection that is designed to help you develop resilience.  

The program's website crashed after the podcast aired, and Northwestern quickly filled the 20,000 registration spots to participate.

I've also noticed conversations about resilience popping up on my social media and news feeds, so something is clearly happening.  And I have a theory as to what that might be.  

There is a higher percentage of people in the US walking around right now with elevated levels of stress, anxiety, and dread than at any other time in our nation's history.  

We're oversaturated with news coverage designed to keep us anxious. As we scroll through social media, our blood pressure rises because of the negativity and misinformation we encounter. 

Add to that the everyday stress of life, the challenges we face personally, grief, loss, illness, and all the rest.  It's no wonder that people are seeking ways to rewrite their stories and move forward with some kind of hope. 

But far too many of us are so averse to the pain that we feel when we are experiencing stress and anxiety that instead of choosing resilience, we decide to find ways to alleviate our pain, to become numb, no matter how harmful that might be.  

Resilience is the ability to not numb ourselves to our feelings, even when painful, and to keep moving forward. It doesn't remove the pain we feel; it helps us overcome it.  

During my reading on the topic of resilience, I came across a quote from Maya Angelou that has me thinking: 

“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”

For me, the power to move beyond the brokenness that comes from stress, worry, anxiety, and depression is one that we all have access to when we finally give up trying to do all of it on our own.  

It's the power of Resurrection, which is not only part of the Universal rhythm of dying and rising, but also a significant aspect of what it means to be created in God's image.  

At the risk of reeling off one of those sappy, overly church-y inspirational messages, we really can turn things over to God.  We can trust that God's presence is with us through the most challenging moments of our lives.  We can surrender our outcomes and take the first step toward a new life. 

We can believe that we can and will be reborn if we dare to overcome our pain.  While we may never be the same again because of it, we can lean into the fact that we will be made new despite it. 

May it be so for us all.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us, now and forever. Amen.