Have you ever been inspired by what you can do with the humble rubber band? Think of the shapes you can make with it! With just two fingers you can stretch it sideways a long way. If you use three fingers you can shape it into a triangle. If you use two hands and four fingers, you can form a rectangle or a square. Or, with just one hand you can screw it up into a tight ball. On each occasion, when you release the pressure, the rubber band easily recovers its original form. That’s because the rubber band is supple, elastic, pliable, flexible, resilient.
So what’s suppleness, elasticity, pliability, flexibility, and resiliency got to do with human beings? Well, these are actually the kinds of spiritual qualities that are needed today in the hurly-burly of modern life. Think about it.
Sometimes people find themselves mentally stretched to the limit. Some feel pulled in two directions. Some get bent out of shape by the demands made on them. Others feel their life is a tight ball of stress. How can they regain their equilibrium and poise? Spirituality is the answer.
Spirituality enables people to gain control of their lives. It allows them to rebound. Spiritual resilience is the capacity to be flexible, adaptable. While this capacity is often associated with genetics, temperament, or good parenting, I believe that resilience is essentially spiritual.
The capability to recover from illness or misfortune comes from a higher source – from an infinite, universal Love. Everyone has been given spiritual resilience. This means that each person has within them the capacity to readily ‘bounce back’. No one has to think or act like a paperclip, which is inflexible, rigid, and can’t recover its shape readily. Remembering that you have spiritual resilience, stops you from staying rigid with fear or despair.
Spiritual resilience has helped me to face and overcome problems with courage and determination, and it has given balance to my life. I’ve seen it help others, too. So, when difficult times come along, draw on spiritual resilience to help you overcome them. You’ve been created resilient, flexible, strong, able to live a happy, healthy life. You possess spiritual resilience. You have the capacity to recover easily from trouble, or illness. Act on this spiritual quality. You have it right now.
I’m a professional Christian Science Practitioner and Teacher. Through my prayer-based practice, I help people find happiness, health and healing.
At the very beginning of my association with Christian Science my husband had passed away and my two young sons were not long at school and I needed to work to support my small family. I wondered just how I was going to do this. I pondered this question and prayed. I was reminded of a commonwealth employment service quite close to home and made an appointment. My work experience was as a secretary and administrator. The interviewer at the agency remarked that going back to that career was impossible with school children, their hours and holidays. He told me of a college of advanced education quite close to my home and that their main curriculum was education, teaching, and that they welcomed mature age students.
I applied for a place in one of their three year full time courses and successfully completed my study.
Beverly your use of the word resilience immediately brought this experience to thought and how resilient and flexible we all had to be.
There were adjustments to be made,co-operation and patience were needed from all of us.
Through my continued study and reliance on Christian Science it was an inspiring time. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health “The human mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding becomes more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes somewhat from itself, and requires less repose.” (page 128).
Thank you for your thoughtful writing.
Thank you Wendy for sharing your precious experience. You and your sons certainly had to express resilience in coping with the changes in your family and working life. You all did well. What a blessing to know that God is the divine Father-Mother, caring for everyone in every situation, and meeting every human need. Thank you for leaving your comment.