Press On!
Every so often I’ll hear a similar message from multiple sources at the same time. I try to pay attention for when that happens trusting that the Lord is trying to draw my attention to something I need to learn. This happened recently and I want to share the message with you. It seems that God has been speaking to me about the need to be resilient. Perhaps resilience is something we could all use as we approach the end of 2020, a year like none other in our lives, and something that would benefit our mentees as well.
Last week I finished a book by Admiral James Stavridis, Sailing True North: Ten Admirals and the Voyage of Character. Of the ten character traits on which he focuses none, wrote Stavridis, is more important for a successful life than resilience. All of us will at some time fall and fail. Men and women of character learn to be resilient, to get up and keep moving forward. This morning I was sent a blog post from Psychology Today titled “10 Habits of Highly Resilient People” by Dr. Bryan Robinson. And the fellows program I’m part of just started using Philippians for our devotional time.
One of my favorite passages is in Philippians, chapter three verses 12-16.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.
We know from 2 Corinthians that Paul suffered many severe hardships. Among others he was beaten, whipped, and stoned. He was in danger from robbers and false brothers. He was shipwrecked, hungry, thirsty, and suffered exposure (2 Cor. 11:16-29). We know from Romans that he also failed and fell spiritually. “For I do not understand my own actions,” Paul wrote. “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” (Rom. 7:15-18).
But Paul was not destroyed by his sufferings or his failures. There he was writing to his friends in Philippi, writing from his incarceration in Rome, “I press on.” One commentator said that the sense of the Greek translated “press on” is to pursue with relentless intensity. Despite his suffering, despite his failure, Paul pressed on, Paul did not give up, he did not give in, he continued to pursue with relentless intensity “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
That is resilience. It brings to my mind the famous Winston Churchill quote to “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never give in, except in matters of conscience or good sense.”
Stavridis wrote that some of resilience is inherent, a trait we are born with and is shaped by our upbringing. But, he said, we can also develop resilience by three practices. First is to spend time with resilient people. Seek out and bind yourself to people who go on to succeed after they have failed. Second, read books with tales of resilience like Homer’s Odyssey and The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. Last, according to Stavridis, is to watch your inner conversation. Just as David took his own soul to task in Psalm 42:5 “Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” we need to take our inner person to task when we are tempted to give up. Say to yourself, “I refuse to be a victim. I will not blame others. I will prevail. I will try again, and again, and again.”
I’m not going to take the space to go over Robinson’s ten habits of resilient people. But there are some good ideas in his post. You can check them out at 10 Habits of Highly Resilient People | Psychology Today
While I think that Stavridis’s three practices and Robinson’s 10 Habits are helpful for developing resilience, note what Paul did not say. He did not say that his pressing on, that his pursuing the upward call of God in Christ Jesus with relentless intensity was a matter of just trying harder. Paul did not press on in Paul’s power. The reason that Paul could press on, the reason that Paul was resilient in the face of suffering and failure was because Jesus had made him his own. “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own,” (Phil 2:12). That is the gospel.
When suffering comes upon us, when we stumble and fall, when we are tempted to despair and to quit, let us flee to Christ. Let us seek Jesus, and in and through him let us renew our resolve to not give in, to not quit, to press on that we might fulfill our calling in him.
Much love, Barry