Building resilience
With all the vagaries of life, we have to make sure that we manage to stay on track toward our proper destination. And this means, for one, that we have to learn how to be resilient enough to bend, bounce back and continue to move on without breaking or stopping due to some problems, failures, crises, etc.
For this, we need to be sport in attitude, knowing how to play the game of life till the end without being overly affected by unavoidable setbacks. All this, of course, is a matter of hope that is built up firmly on the ground of our Christian faith that tells us that God is a father who will always take care of us no matter how our game of life plays out.
There are certain relevant skills to develop here. Among them is always to be cheerful and optimistic. We may experience disappointments, and, yes, some of them can be extreme, but we have to learn how to handle them properly, never failing to see the hand of God behind them.
If God allows them to happen, the invincible conviction of our faith should tell us that it is because something good can always be derived from them. As St. Paul said: “In all things, God works for the good of those who love him…” (Rom 8,28) So, let’s always bank our reactions to things on our faith, more than just on our intelligence and, much less, on our feelings and emotions alone.
We should not stay too long feeling bad over some negative developments in our life. We may complain and lament a little, but let’s keep it as short as possible. What we have to do is to immediately see what precious messages and lessons God is showing us with these dark events.
If we have to say sorry, then let’s not delay it. God is always merciful. If we have to suffer the consequences of our mistakes, then let’s just be game about them. If we refer them to God, we know that they possess great power to purify and strengthen us, as well as to help in God’s continuing work of human redemption.
We have to have the attitude of just beginning and beginning again, never allowing ourselves to get stuck at some point of our struggles. It helps if we also have a good sense of humor.
We have no reason to plunge into deep worry and anxiety, since God will take care of everything, for as long as we at least don’t formally go against him.
We have to be cheerful all the way, deliberately training ourselves in this field, since with our human weakness and some adverse world conditions, we can easily be overcome by worry and anxiety.
Cheerfulness, even in its form of naughty humor, has very salutary effects and advantages. It makes us see things better. It makes us more flexible and more able to handle varying situations.
It gives us some space and distance from events so that we would be able to assess and judge things calmly and objectively. And all this aside from its immediate effect of making everybody feel good.
All this can help us build the necessary resilience in life.
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