Join Me As We Learn The Spirituality of Resilience
“Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, “We are here as your slaves.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.”
Gen 50:18-20
Dear friends,
I received two bits of news this week that stood in sharp contrast with one another, and yet, both pointed toward a similar theme.
First, I heard from two families in our congregation whose jobs have been either eliminated or dramatically cut back. I listened to the anxiety in their voices as they spoke of the uncertainty their families face in the months ahead. The prospect of losing their homes is real. Yet, for both, amid the weariness and anxiety was an unmistakable note of grit and determination. “We’re going to be okay, whatever it takes,” was what I heard from both.
Second, on the radio today I heard news of the U.S. stock market jumping sharply. A response, the newscaster said, to investor belief that the U.S. economy will soon be headed toward a “bounce back” once the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.
Bouncing back.
There’s a term for “bouncing back” used in a variety of academic fields from psychology, to ecology, and even economics: that term is resilience.
Resilience is the ability to bounce back from trauma. Often, resilience is used to describe the ability to return to the way things were. And that is certainly good. But in many cases — and this is where I find myself especially inspired — resilience is used to describe the ability to catalyze transformation in response to pain, hardship, and trauma. In other words, resilience can be a redemptive response that creates something new that didn’t exist before.
I don’t know what’s going to happen in the coming months and years. Nobody does. Despite the optimism of stock market speculators, we are likely facing a long period of recovery, in terms of public health and economic growth. But I do know this: we would all benefit from gaining more resilience.
Ancient Jewish and Christian scriptures are full of what I call the spirituality of resilience. In the passage quoted above from Genesis Chapter 50, Joseph, standing from his high perch of authority in Egypt, wisely recognizes that the trauma he suffered at the hands of his own brothers had been mysteriously redeemed by God. Because of their betrayal, and despite his very real suffering, he was now in a position to save his people from extinction.
Wisdom recognizes something remarkable:
Just as there are uncontrollable destructive natural circumstances raging around us, compounded by the evil or incompetent intentions of people, so too there is an uncontrollable and constructive grace, coupled with a loving intention, brilliantly at work in our midst.
This is not to say that evil is secretly good. It certainly is not. Rather, it is merely to say that there is something mysteriously and miraculously good about us, about life — about what we call God — and that is the ability to redeem evil and destruction in truly good and transformative ways.
While we may not be able to control these dynamics, we can cooperate with them to become either co-destroyer or co-creators. Spiritual resilience is the grace of learning to co-create transformative expressions of goodness in response to evil and destruction.
I suspect we are all going to need that perspective and those skills in the coming months and years.
And so, for the months of May and June, while we are slowly beginning the long recovery from COVID-19, we will be exploring “The Spirituality of Resilience” at The Oceanside Sanctuary every Sunday morning at 10:30 AM.
I hope you’ll join us.
Jason Coker is the lead pastor at the Oceanside Sanctuary