Life will break your plans. This is not me being pessimistic—it is fact and statistics. If you live long enough and aim for anything worth having, you will face challenges, setbacks, losses, failures, and moments that knock the breath out of you. Even scripture says it in John 16:33 (AMP).
“…In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but…”
“…The world will make you suffer. But be brave…!”John 16:33 (GNBUK)
It’s not a question of whether this will happen, but who you know and how you will respond. It is not the whole message as written in the Bible—it also speaks deeply about our Saviour—but for now, we are focusing on the human side of the verse, expectations.
Bravery, in this sense, means being resilient. Resilience is not about never going down; it’s about what you do after you go down. Some people hit the floor and stay there, building an identity around the wound. Others bounce back so quickly that they never process what happened.
Resilience is feeling the weight fully and yet choosing to rise, not yielding to it. It is both toughness and hopefulness. Some people may be more resilient than others, but largely it is not a fixed trait that you either have or do not have. It is more of a skill set—and like all skill sets, it grows through use and training.
Every time you navigate difficulty, even imperfectly or messily, you are building neural pathways that make the next challenge less destabilising. That means the hardest seasons of your life are also, quietly, your greatest training.
People who find genuine purpose experience their pain differently. It is not toxic positivity or pretending. Purpose and perspective shape how they respond to and recover from stress.
What makes them more resilient? Their pain is no less. Permit me to use an imperfect word—they “metabolise” it, or better put, they synthesise it into motivation that drives them forward instead of limiting them.
You have gotten through every hard day of your life so far. Even if you dragged yourself through, it is still a perfect record. It is evidence that you are more capable than you know.
I once watched a movie where they played tug-of-war—one team against the other. You would expect Team A to win based on their build, while the other team seemed destined to lose. But in the end, the underdogs won. Their strategy was simple: they understood the game. They held on, resisted long enough for the stronger team to lose their footing, and then they began to move together in unison, almost like a dance.
“The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived.” — Robert Jordan
Think of the hardest thing you have navigated in the last five years. What got you through? It’s in you. God has already strengthened you. When you feel like you cannot get up, remember the times you have already got up. Give yourself a mental push to rise again.