Sustainable Resilience

                                                                        


I like to travel to new places, but I’m not overly fond of delays.  I get frustrated when airlines offer me incentives to take a later flight in exchange for vouchers.  I’m all about the destination! 

But God has been teaching me a lot about journeys.  I’m learning to enjoy the journey, especially the unexpected side trips we have to take from time to time.  Those side trips can be frustrating but I’ve learned some valuable lessons from them.

I’ve learned to be more flexible in my journey.  We ministered among the Saraguro people in Ecuador. When I learned to be flexible about time, I began to appreciate the event oriented Saraguro culture and become more patient.  You may remember hearing about flexibility in training.  Flexibility is an important characteristic that we learn about in cross-cultural transition.  The more flexible a person is when it comes to interacting in a new environment the more likely they will have better interactions with others, adapting their behavior to whatever situation they find themselves in.  Laura Gardiner in her book, Healthy, Resilient, & Effective in Cross-Cultural Ministry calls this ability, resilience.  Healthy, effective missionaries are resilient.  They have “the quality that enables [them] to face and endure the ‘blows of life,’ the catastrophes, the trauma, the enormously difficult situations that so many people of faith face while engaged in mission.”

We’re getting a lot of opportunities right now to exercise flexibility, even if it isn’t in a way we imagined!  Flexibility and patience are closely related, you can’t have one without the other.  God will help us to learn from these experiences. 

We want you to be a healthy, resilient missionary.  There are ways to build resiliency into your journey so that it is sustainable.  Southwick and Charney identified ten factors that almost always are all present in those they studied who demonstrated high resilience in situations of adversity. The four factors which most stand out to me are:  

Realistic Optimism – maintaining an optimistic but realistic outlook 

Brain Fitness - attending to their health and well-being, and training intensively to stay physically fit, mentally sharp, and emotionally strong 

Cognitive and Emotional Flexibility – accepting responsibility for their own emotional well-being; found a way to accept that which they could not change 

Meaning and Purpose – being active problem solvers who look for meaning and opportunity in the midst of adversity.

When you hear these four factors, Realistic optimism, Brain Fitness, Cognitive and Emotional Flexibility, and Meaning and Purpose, which one would you most like to strengthen in your life in these challenging times?

In the coming days I’ll be sharing with you more about how to build greater resilience into your journey of faith.  But for now, wherever you are in your journey, God is with you, He promised to never leave us or forsake us.  He is faithful.

 

And until next time, you’re on a great journey of faith keep moving forward! 

 

Comments

  1. Susan28 September 2020 at 16:19

    Have you listened to the Resiliency podcasts. They are very good and reach all missionaries....young families, singles, old timers like me...ha ha😉

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  2. Su B7 October 2020 at 00:23

    for me the joy of the journey came into sharp focus on cross training so many years ago. we had to do a 'task' in one session and it was ( i remember vaguely so forgive the detail) something to do with listing the good/bad about change. Most listed something that challenged them about moves whilst for me I found joy in my heart at the new opportunity. A good thing for sure, makes adaptation a joy and delight, energizing, but... I also have to be careful to ensure I stay still long enough to finish and only move when directed. That was so good to see. Thanks Gail and Dean for many points of learning.

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