Hunting for Resiliency

In the States we have merely two weeks under our belts of "stay at home" orders as we watch the COVID-19 pandemic spread. It begins by showing up places we have been, then it reaches people we know.

Fear, grief, uncertainty are all the order of the day. Striking among it all is the lack of resiliency in our systems and even our own lives. One author mentioned it on a recent podcast and I have been contemplating it since the fateful Friday a couple of weeks ago when schools closed and our lives were set for change.

Restaurants, always run on the slimmest of margins, are devastated. More than 3 million people applied for unemployment in the first week alone. The sky has fallen on the economy and our health systems warn of overwhelming.

Nothing is resilient. And I don't say this thinking I have everyone bettered, I too live from paycheck to paycheck with little margin. I get the uncertainty, the fear of the unknown.

Perhaps, given the lack of resiliency, what we need is not a return to "normal" but a path to resiliency. Transformed economic systems. The way we do life and business. Shifts in education.

While that is a refrain we are hearing more often, that transformation is some days away. We could use some resiliency now.

Enter the King. Jesus.

The anchor that is meant to keep believers. To grant hope. To hold us through the most difficult of storms. His resiliency making us resilient.

Can I introduce you to him?

That ache for something more is an ache for him. Your Creator. The One who holds the universe together and works his purpose even through our times. He is the resolution to the pain of disregard for God. The ways you have rejected him because you have preferred to remain on the "throne" of your life. When we are ready to give that up, to surrender to his authority, we are welcomed home in him. Identity, belonging, purpose come from him.

We now have a place to bring our tears our insecurity and find hope instead. Resiliency.

The author of the book of Hebrews in the Bible, in talking about lesser things being stripped away in life, says this of our place now in Christ:

"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." Hebrews 12:28–29 (ESV)

In Jesus we have received a kingdom that doesn't shake. It doesn't face ruin. It is resilient. Because of that we can worship, give our attention and admiration over to God. He is bringing all things under his authority and glory.

Run to Jesus. That he will secure us in his resiliency and lend it to us.