The essential fuel for resilience …

Life is – and always will be – full of challenges, trials, tribulations, and troubles. That’s a reality even Jesus pointed to …

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows …” John 16:33a.

Because life will always have its challenges, living well requires a capacity for being resilient in the face of troubles. Resiliency is something Ron Lieber discovered in a shoe back in 2000, as he reported for Fast Company:

People talk about having a “spring in their step.” Now you can buy one from Nike. The giant shoe company, after 16 years of research, just released sneakers called Shox, which actually have four strong springs in the heel. When you press down, the brightly colored springs, made of high-density foam, push back up. You jump, and they assist. Shox are intended to help you run faster and jump higher than you could on your own.

Bruce Kilgore, director of advanced research and development at Nike, describes what happened when runners tested out a prototype: “Smiles … would break out on people’s faces as they were running.”

Christians, too, have an inner resilience that is not their own. It’s the hope we have in Jesus Christ, which is why Jesus finished His statement about trouble by directing us back to Himself:

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world,” John 16:33.

Modern psychology supports the concept that hope is the essential fuel for being resilient in times of troubles and trials. In a recent study, researchers from George Mason University compared the effects of seven different character strengths in their ability to predict resilience. In a review of the research, Melanie Greenberg, Ph.D., noted the following:

“Of all the character strengths assessed, only hope was a significant moderator of well-being in the face of negative life events. In other words, hope acted as a protective factor; in those with high hope, well-being was high even when many negative life events occurred. The other strengths, including grit, gratitude, meaning and so on did not protect against the negative impact of adversity.”

For Christians, it is our hope in Christ that enables us to be resilient and have an anchor through the storms of life …

“So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary,” Hebrews 6:18-19.

This hope is the fuel for the resilience we need to live well. Gary Thomas, writing for Christianity Today, described a powerful demonstration of hope acted out …

As Vice President, George Bush represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev’s widow. She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev’s wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest.

There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.

When we lose hope, our capacity for resilience is depleted. Do you find your resilience for living buoyed and fueled by hope in Christ?

Scotty