The Resilience Box

I have felt weary lately. Weary from upward struggle after upward struggle, and from crashing wave after crashing wave. I have felt the weight of other’s expectation, my own expectations, and the perceived expectations of strangers. My personal life has taken some hits, and my box of resilience strategies and come backs feels nearly empty.

My resilience box has my bounce back plans in it. The plan for when the plan doesn’t work out the way I thought it would. My plan B, C, and D are in this box too. There is also my emergency back up plan for that rainy day in case everything else goes sideways. I have my happy face for all circumstances in there, my pep-talk of encouragement for myself, my motivation to keep going through the anxiety and stressful moments, and my discipline to actually do it. I keep a spare stick or two of bravery and courage for when others tell me to e brave, and I have chocolate...

But lately, my box of resilience is feeling light and looking kind of empty. I don’t feel like I have been getting much of a supply replenish on the backup plans and strategies and I can see the bottom of the box. Most of the time I don’t even realise that I am carrying it around.

After-all

, am I not supposed to be relying on God for everything? Am I not supposed to be casting my cares upon him? Why do I even need this box?

Fortunately, the box of backup plans and all the things that I try to do, fix, and make happen in my own strength are not what I depend on to get me through my days. If I totally relied on the stuff in my box to bounce me back from every beating and bashing from the world, I would be struggling with so much more than I am. The box is all the plans, stuff and things I try to do, fix and make happen in my own strength, in the w

ays that the world say I should. But I have something better than my resilience box. I have a foundation of unshakeable rock, unchanging truth, and unwavering faithfulness. I have Christ Jesus, the solid rock on which I stand.

When I stand on my Christ foundation, I have all I need. There is no need for Plan B, backup plans and strategies when my hope is in the Lord. My resilience box may feel and look empty, but my Jesus is in control of my days and my destiny.

Proverbs 3:5 Reminds me to trust and not go it alone.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”.

Psalm 20:7 also speaks of trusting in the Lord.

“Some trust in chariots and some trust in horses, (and backup plans, resilience boxes and plan B), but we trust in the name of the Lord our God”.

Let’s put down the resilience box and place our trust in the Lord in the struggle and in the joy. Let’s rely on Him in all things for it is in Him that we live, and breathe, and move.

For Discussion:

What things do you keep in your resilience box?

What things have you relied on in the past to bring you through situations in your life?

How have they worked out for you?

Have there been times in your life where you have used your coping strategies from your resilience box and then realised that God should have been where you went to first? What happened when you did go to God?

Take Home:

God is a God of the big and the small, the struggles and the times of celebration. In this life, we have

access to a loving God who is waiting for us to come to Him in all circumstances. Let’s leave the

coping on our own strategies at the door and enter into God’s presence daily, trusting Him to guide us through His plans, and His purposes for us.

Lastly:

Jeremiah17:7.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him”.