Clawing Our Way Out - Audio

I received an article about resilience written by Terri Hendrix. Thinking about her friends who had gone through difficult times, she thought the dictionary definitions of resilience we lacking. They didn't simply bounce back.

She wrote:
“No matter how much faith we might carry in our hearts, I think it's unlikely for most of us to be pliable enough to return to our original form 'after being bent, compressed, and stretched to the breaking point.' When you walk through the bowels of hell and make it out the other side, I doubt you're unscathed from the journey...Perhaps resilience is simply mastering the art of living. Whatever it is, I think the interim between the dark and daylight is pure hell. And that's a pit you don't just "bounce" out of - you have to climb. You stick your hands into the sides of the unknown and claw until your nail beds peel back. Then you claw some more."

As disciples of Jesus, we are a people of resilience. Not because tragedy bounces off of us, not because we get over it so quickly. We are resilient because we are willing climb out of the pit, to stick our hands into the sides of the unknown and claw. We are also resilient because we do not climb and claw alone.

I don’t know at what point Jesus realized he was going to face a violent, bloody, and painful death. He was faithful in accepting this fate, and in believing that he would rise again after three days. We also see from his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, however, that he was not entirely overjoyed at the prospect of being mocked, beaten, and crucified. Going on with his daily life of teaching, preaching, healing, and caring for others required resilience.

Jesus had to claw his way out of the pit of fear and despair to go on with daily living, with the knowledge of his impending violent and bloody death. It took resilience for Jesus to do this, and it took his friends being there with him in that knowledge.

Jesus told his disciples about his death and resurrection so they would remember and believe, and I’d guess he also told them because he needed them for their support. He needed their help to be resilient. I’d guess that’s why his rebuke of Peter was so strong. Peter thought he was helping by saying Jesus should never have to go through suffering, but he was actually making it even more difficult for Jesus.

Denying someone’s pain or the hell someone is facing does not help them through it. Being there with them in the pain…that is what is needed for resilience, folks who’ll let you climb out of the pit and offer you a hand, not deny that you’re in the pit.

Peter had to be resilient too after his rebuke. He needed his friends there with him too. Resilience requires friends. Some parts are alone, then when we need friends to help pull us out, we really need them.

As Christians, we are people of resilience. We are dragged down into pits of fear and despair just like everyone else, but we are not alone. We have Jesus with us to be in there with us. Jesus supports us when we start clawing our way out of the pit. We have our friends to help pull us out of the pit. We don’t go through life unscathed, but we do go through with resilience, trusting in Jesus who faced hatred, scorn, torture, and death with resilience. Teaching us, his disciples to walk in that same way in which he led.