As I sat on my living room floor on Sunday afternoon sorting through a box of old journals, letters and cards, I realized that I was OK.

I didn’t go looking for that affirmation, and the thought hadn’t occurred to me that I wasn’t OK. I thought it was just going to be an afternoon of pitching ridiculous stuff I had saved way too long. But as I took an unexpected walk down memory lane, it occurred to me that things that should have derailed me or made me want to jump off the cliff of hopelessness hadn’t done that at all.

God had made me resilient.

And sometimes you don’t know that you’ve been resilient until you can look back over your shoulder at the challenges and the darker episodes in your life and see where you were and where you are now. And if you put it in a spiritual perspective instead of patting yourself on the back for how stoic you are, you know that it was God’s work, not your own.

Years from now there may be another box I’ll need to go through or another old journal to read, reminders of the things going on in my life right now. And I hope that spiritual resilience will have characterized those years in between, too.

Resilience doesn’t mean I don’t have struggles and questions and regrets and discouragements along the way. It simply means I’ve gotten better at recognizing them as opportunities to trust God.

And that only comes with being given the chances to do…just that.

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you. Isaiah 43:2