Faithful Resilience

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God,

who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Dear Friends,

This week, I am on a road trip to Vancouver with my brother and nephew. As we were driving through the Okanagan, our route took us near the Bald Range fire. This is just one of the hundreds of fires across BC and Canada. The forest fires bring up all kinds of issues, concerns and things to be aware of: air quality, threat to property, devastation of natural beauty, global warming, firefighters, road closures and loss of life. As we came closer to the Bald Range fire, on our phone and on the radio, we could hear all the evacuation notices and warnings.

One of the things that they encouraged everyone living in the vicinity to do was to have their “go bag” ready. This is the bag containing all of the things that you would take with you if you had to evacuate. This would be not only the things you would need as you evacuated, but also the things that if your house burned down you wanted to make sure weren’t destroyed: important documents, keepsakes, etc. Being confronted with these kinds of decisions really has a way of clarifying priorities about things… It cuts through the busy-ness of our lives and has us ask, What is really important? Hmmm…

As were driving out of the Okanagan, we saw a really large, dark, reddish cloud of smoke hovering ahead of us. We were on a winding highway so we weren’t really sure if we would go to the right of it, the left of it, or straight through it. For a while, it looked like we were going to skirt around the edges but soon found ourselves driving right through the thick of it.

Isn’t this the way life is? We always know there are dark, ominous clouds hovering on the horizon. Our first prayer is that they don’t come nearer (or we don’t go nearer) to us. Sometimes, however, life brings us right into the thick of them. Then what? What will guide us through them to hopefully emerge safely on the other side?

On this trip, we had the highway to guide us. Pretty straightforward… After about a half hour, we could see the edge of the cloud and blue skies were waiting for us. In real life, the path through the clouds is not always so clear. Especially, when we are caught in the thick of the darkness of life, What do we do?

A few years ago, I was introduced to the idea of resilience as one of the key character traits to develop. Life can be hard and brutal. We all have to deal with hardships in life. The difference between those who are crushed by these hardships and those who not only survive but grow stronger through them is resilience. This is the ability to bounce back from tragedies. It’s the ability to acknowledge what is so and to ask, Now what shall I do? It’s the ability to just take the next step… For those of us who call ourselves Christians, faithful resilience is the ability and opportunity to trust in the God who loves us. To trust that through whatever happens, God is with us. It is to trust that God can use even the hardest things to bring about some goodness.

It also seems that faithful resilience can operate when life is “good.” When things are on an even keel and maybe resources are more plentiful, faithful resilience is the ability to not give into the temptation to “hoard while we can” but to practice generosity. To trust that as we share with others out of the abundance God has provided, that we create and receive abundance around us. That counterintuitive aspect of the spiritual laws comes into play: The more we give away, the more we receive! 

There is not always a clear path forward but as people of faith, we know that no matter what “next step” we take trusting in God, God will be there.

Resilience and peace be with you,

Pastor Phil