A word that is being used a great deal in the circles I find myself is resilience. In fact, it is a concept my co-authors and I have included in our new book, Exception to the Rule. The reality behind the concept, resilience, is not new, but the need for the idea is more prevalent than for a long time. We might explore why today there is such a need for the language of resiliency, but that will come in another reflection. First I want to explore the nature of resiliency and why it is such an important spiritual concept for humans.
As I said, you bump into the idea of resiliency in many places today. However, one of the recent places I read about it was Krista Tippett’s wonderful 2016 book, Becoming Wise. I like her subtitle, “An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living.” Toward the end of her book she notes, “I’m glad for the language of resilience that has entered the twenty-first-century lexicon, from urban planning to mental health.” Indeed, the word is becoming ubiquitous. Tippett continues, “Resilience is a successor to mere progress, a companion to sustainability. It acknowledges from the outset that things will go wrong.”
I am confident that last line is key. It is a line that is realistic: things will go wrong. Perhaps that is the problem with the idea of progress. Of course, we all know there will be progress---there will be growth. In fact, I spend most of my time in a growth industry---namely, education. But it is not a straight line charting inevitable growth. There are ups and downs. Things don’t go perfectly. Folks make mistakes. I make mistakes. Given enough time, we all know that things will go wrong. Resiliency deals with life at that point: when things have gone wrong.
Sometimes it is a failure. Sometimes a mistake. Sometimes it is a sin. Something has gone wrong. I like how Tippett puts it. “All of our solutions will eventually outlive their usefulness. We will all make messes, and disruption we do not cause or predict will land on us. This is the drama of being alive.” So now what? Resiliency affirms that we can bounce back. Failure, mistakes and sins need not be the last word. We can all bounce back. We are resilient.
Let’s follow Tippett’s thinking process about resiliency. She says, “To nurture a resilient human being, or a resilient city, is to build in an expectation of adversity, a capacity for inevitably vulnerability.” That is the key foundational setting for resiliency. We are vulnerable. We need to assume our vulnerability will one day result in hurt. Resiliency is what we do when that day comes. The resilient ones will bounce back. They will find a way to nurture the wound of failure, setback, mess or sin and not let that be the last word. We will come back stronger than ever. Resilient humans will be hurt, but they won’t be ultimately defeated.
Resiliency builds hope into our lives. I like again the way Tippett describes resiliency. “It’s a shift from wish-based optimism to reality-based hope.” Perhaps this is the right place to introduce the spirituality of resilience. Certainly hope is part of the human fabric, although it is true that some folks lose their ability to hope. For some folks, life gets so bad---so bleak---they fall into despair. They literally live without hope. But if we are spiritual---and if God is somehow in our picture---we cannot despair. Even if we can’t hope, God hopes for us.
And this is where I see one key role for resiliency. It is a basis for hope. It is a capacity for knowing there is always more---more than just failure, sin, messes and mistakes. And if we acknowledge the spiritual dimension, we know we are not in it alone. I take real solace in that fact. And I am joined by Tippett. Once more, we can read her words. She says, “Resilience is at once proactive, pragmatic, and humble. It knows it needs others.” And it knows we will have the help of others.
And finally, Tippett points to the way resiliency works. She claims, “It doesn’t overcome failure so much as transmute it, integrating it into the reality that evolves.” This is a profound insight. When we fail or make messes, we sometimes feel like that is the end of the world. Sometimes our sins are so heinous, we think we are forever condemned. There is not use to go on. This can lead to despair, which in turn, can lead to suicide---literally or metaphorically. Resilience says there is hope---there is life beyond the problem.
Resilience says that reality evolves. There is the hope. Reality is not simply a given---objective and unchanging. God is always creator and creative. Adam and Eve blew it and so will we. But that is not the last word. The gospel is always a gospel of grace and of hope. It is about life, not death. Resilience is the contemporary word to describe the human capacity to respond to grace and hope and to live.
As I said, you bump into the idea of resiliency in many places today. However, one of the recent places I read about it was Krista Tippett’s wonderful 2016 book, Becoming Wise. I like her subtitle, “An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living.” Toward the end of her book she notes, “I’m glad for the language of resilience that has entered the twenty-first-century lexicon, from urban planning to mental health.” Indeed, the word is becoming ubiquitous. Tippett continues, “Resilience is a successor to mere progress, a companion to sustainability. It acknowledges from the outset that things will go wrong.”
I am confident that last line is key. It is a line that is realistic: things will go wrong. Perhaps that is the problem with the idea of progress. Of course, we all know there will be progress---there will be growth. In fact, I spend most of my time in a growth industry---namely, education. But it is not a straight line charting inevitable growth. There are ups and downs. Things don’t go perfectly. Folks make mistakes. I make mistakes. Given enough time, we all know that things will go wrong. Resiliency deals with life at that point: when things have gone wrong.
Sometimes it is a failure. Sometimes a mistake. Sometimes it is a sin. Something has gone wrong. I like how Tippett puts it. “All of our solutions will eventually outlive their usefulness. We will all make messes, and disruption we do not cause or predict will land on us. This is the drama of being alive.” So now what? Resiliency affirms that we can bounce back. Failure, mistakes and sins need not be the last word. We can all bounce back. We are resilient.
Let’s follow Tippett’s thinking process about resiliency. She says, “To nurture a resilient human being, or a resilient city, is to build in an expectation of adversity, a capacity for inevitably vulnerability.” That is the key foundational setting for resiliency. We are vulnerable. We need to assume our vulnerability will one day result in hurt. Resiliency is what we do when that day comes. The resilient ones will bounce back. They will find a way to nurture the wound of failure, setback, mess or sin and not let that be the last word. We will come back stronger than ever. Resilient humans will be hurt, but they won’t be ultimately defeated.
Resiliency builds hope into our lives. I like again the way Tippett describes resiliency. “It’s a shift from wish-based optimism to reality-based hope.” Perhaps this is the right place to introduce the spirituality of resilience. Certainly hope is part of the human fabric, although it is true that some folks lose their ability to hope. For some folks, life gets so bad---so bleak---they fall into despair. They literally live without hope. But if we are spiritual---and if God is somehow in our picture---we cannot despair. Even if we can’t hope, God hopes for us.
And this is where I see one key role for resiliency. It is a basis for hope. It is a capacity for knowing there is always more---more than just failure, sin, messes and mistakes. And if we acknowledge the spiritual dimension, we know we are not in it alone. I take real solace in that fact. And I am joined by Tippett. Once more, we can read her words. She says, “Resilience is at once proactive, pragmatic, and humble. It knows it needs others.” And it knows we will have the help of others.
And finally, Tippett points to the way resiliency works. She claims, “It doesn’t overcome failure so much as transmute it, integrating it into the reality that evolves.” This is a profound insight. When we fail or make messes, we sometimes feel like that is the end of the world. Sometimes our sins are so heinous, we think we are forever condemned. There is not use to go on. This can lead to despair, which in turn, can lead to suicide---literally or metaphorically. Resilience says there is hope---there is life beyond the problem.
Resilience says that reality evolves. There is the hope. Reality is not simply a given---objective and unchanging. God is always creator and creative. Adam and Eve blew it and so will we. But that is not the last word. The gospel is always a gospel of grace and of hope. It is about life, not death. Resilience is the contemporary word to describe the human capacity to respond to grace and hope and to live.
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