Resilience (bounce back like a rubber duck)

The dictionary gives the following definitions for the word ‘resilience’:

1. the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
2. the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

Last night at our Redefine Bible Study night, we held a resilience training night hosted by the organisation ‘Pogim‘. The young people really enjoyed it and felt like the night had given them great tools to be able to weather the storms of life and bounce back from opposition, hardship & suffering. A lot of the exercises involved little yellow rubber ducks.

These were used because of how resilient a rubber duck is. It might seem small an insignificant, but if you crush a rubber duck it will eventually reform and become whole again. If you push it under the water it will bob back up to the surface, where it will sit calmly on top of the water, riding whatever waves come its way.

I also love the image of the ducks, because they are small and yellow like little ducklings; ducklings that will follow their parent, trusting them to lead them to safety.

They are a great image of resilience and trust.

Speaking of resilience, I love how the apostle Paul speaks about the resilience that his relationship with Jesus gave him; “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” 2 Corinthians 4:8-9.

David in the psalms echoes this sentiment “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” Psalm 37:23-24.

The key to both Paul’s and David’s resilience was God’s presence in their lives. This was not to say that they walked through life with no problems, troubles or suffering.  If you read through the lives of both men, you will see that they weathered many storms of difficulty, oppression and hardship. Paul even weathered physical storms that threatened to take His life. However, despite these numerous troubles, they never gave up or gave in.  They pressed on, faithfully serving and following the God who had saved and called them into His service.

They trusted that God was bigger than the tough stuff they were going through.

They trusted that their great God and Saviour would fulfil the promises He had given them, for the knew Him to be faithful.

Listen to Paul as he wrote to Christians in Philippi, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:7-14.

Both men were resilient because they had resolved to follow God whatever the cost.  They were resilient because they were reliant on God’s strength and not their own. They were resilient because they kept on getting up whenever they fell or were knocked down.

Let’s be like Paul, David and so many other followers of God.

Let’s keep on getting up, pressing forwards a
nd faithfully following.

Let’s be like the rubber duck, able to float above any water of adversity because we are holding onto Jesus’ hand.