Sources of resilience? The phrase was used as advice to a woman who works in climate change. How to keep going in a world facing catastrophe? How to resist despair and nurture hope? Why it matters that complacency is countered by conviction, and resignation confronted by passion.
Find sources of resilience – where?
– in an inner life that is morally alert and compassionately thoughtful; by thinking and praying and working in the place where we are, as agents of change, understanding and collaborative in the work of bridge-building and hope construction.
– in the practice of whatever faith we say we believe. My place is in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, as a follower of Jesus Christ. That has implications for how I view the physical world, as God's created order gifted into our stewardship; how I read the Bible as a revelation of that long narrative of God's love affair with Creation, and with humanity; how I think of humanity itself, each person as made in the image of God, and a world broken and shattered by human conflict, inequality, cruelty, and possessive of power; how I think of God as holy love, as righteous mercy and as loving redeemer, revealed in Christ Crucified and risen; how I seek to live in the power of the Spirit, shaped towards Christlikeness, drawn into the life of God by faith in a grace that can be trusted. And much more.
All of this is so easy to write it's easy to be carried away by our own fluency into a warm and passive idealism. Nevertheless, resilience needs ideas that guide our thinking, values that shape our practice, and an imagination that doesn't give in because failure is easier to imagine than fulfilment.
All of this noted down here, because someone's despair provoked a question and called out the answer – seek sources of resilience. There's more here, much more, but this will do – for a start, for now.
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