Resilient in Faith

By joannsblog2016 on November 24, 2020 • ( 2 )

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
Helen Keller

The word resilience has been ringing in my head for some time now. What does it mean to be resilient? Resilient in hope? Resilient in love? Resilient in faith? Most of all resilient in life?

Helen Keller’s life was a definition of resiliency. Before her second birthday, she contracted an illness that left her both deaf and blind. These disabilities didn’t prevent her from leading a full life. In fact, she accomplished things in her life that many of us dream of. She was a well-known author, lecturer, political activist and advocate for those with disabilities. She hit the nail on the head when she said our world is full of suffering, but it is also full of overcoming suffering.

How do we overcome suffering in this world? In our lives?

For many of us, we know the answer because we are living proof of overcoming trials. The constant between our stories is resiliency in our faith.

What does that mean?

I’ve come across so many stories of suffering. One common theme in the overcoming climax of these stories is an awakening of faith. After being bent, stretched, compressed through the struggles in their lives, they return to the one constant that remains, the compass that guides their path – GOD.

God is the crux of that resiliency. Throughout life, we stretch like rubber bands and our lives take us further from our faith. We make wrong turns, venture in the wilderness, in dark valleys. Yet, through those turns, we have a longing deep within that returns us to our center. In other words, we release the rubber band. It is here that we meet face to face with our faith, with God. It is here that we thirst and hunger for what only God can provide. It is here where we overcome the trials in our lives. When our suffering and sorrows are transformed into peace and joy and our thirst and hunger are satisfied.

Every stretch of the rubber band, God was there on the other end, waiting for the tension, the longing, to reach a point where it would be released. It’s a point of surrender. Where all things are overcome through hope, love and faith.

This year has been a year of stretching that rubber band. It’s been a year of testing our resiliency in our faith, in love, in hope, in life. The year 2020 will be a year of great remembrance. Most will remember it as a year of stretching that rubber band. Will you remember it as a year that not only stretched the rubber band, but released the tension, returning you back to the center of your heart, the place where your faith is the strongest, where God has been waiting for you?

Blessings and Happy Thanksgiving.