All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others

Resilient......are you?

Listen here: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/33183e71/resilient-are-you

a life well lived... resilient.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, a world away from life today in North Carolina - in almost every way. [for those outside America, there is about 3,000 miles between West and East Coasts, my then and my now]

Any family vacation time was spent on the water. While water skiing was a whole lot smoother on Clear Lake or at the Delta, we did occasionally ski on the estuary between Oakland and Alameda, where we lived.

Sometimes my dad took us across the SF Bay out into open waters, with big swells--especially huge when we ventured out under the Golden Gate Bridge. The size of the waves, compared to the size of our 16 ft boat, was quite concerning as a little girl! But always, I remember turning around and looking out the back of the boat at the steady wake behind – a metaphor for life, I believe.

[Weren't we talking about the period between the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ? Yes. But I spoke at a retreat last week and wanted to share my talk with you hoping it might encourage and challenge. Besides, folks regularly ask me, 'what is it you do?' Retreats are one of the 'things'. Retreats, even a half-day one like this was, provide a set-apart time to meet with God, often breathing new life into us.]

Friends, we all ‘throw a wake’ from our lives, and it tells the story of how we lived--how we handled choppy or turbulent water and when we water skiied on glassy waters. What 'wake' or legacy will you and I leave behind when we come to the end of our boat ride?

It was quite a few years ago, when I was smitten with a single Old Testament individual--his faith and his courage. From Joshua 14.7-13, two different translations: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua 14.7-13&ver...

One of two spies sent into the land God promised to the Israelites, Caleb serves as a great role model of trusting God and courageously living life to the full. Note: Caleb did not just have faith in God, he believed him, and he trusted him. Aye, Caleb did not just boast of faith, but his faith translated into action. At 40 years of age, Caleb crossed from the desert to the Promised Land because he believed God, trusted his promise to give the Israelites the land, and he acted on it.¹

Besides being faithful, courageous, reliable, tenacious, gutsy, and in for the long haul … Caleb was RESILIENT. Resilience: staying the course, perhaps coming back after failure or mishap, and running strong, remaining steadfast. The character traits that Caleb exhibited at 40 years of age still defined him decades later.

“…Here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then.”² I want to say the same thing, don't you?

If Caleb had to keep his body strong,

exercise self discipline and train to be ready for battle—

so do you and I.

“Give. Me. This. Mountain!” Caleb cried out, ready to fight, though 85 years old. God did what he said he would do, and Caleb prevailed.³Caleb held God to his promise of giving him the land of Hebron.

Friends, knowing God's promises gives us the mental and spiritual strength for life today. Ohhhh, how I remember holding my desperately sick baby in my arms, and by the light of the PICU, writing out God's promise - that 'if I approached the throne of my gracious God, I would find mercy'⁴. What promise(s) do you need to recall and in doing so, believe God?

Developing resilience is demanding,

mostly done in secret,

often humbling,

not always fun… 5

but absolutely vital.

It matters … a lot.

You see, we were

knit together in our mothers' wombs,6

made in the image of God,7

the very 'temple of the Holy Spirit',8 Paul said.

O yes, you and I are meant to be resilient. sign me up.

Listen: One Day! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So94m-Lp6Pw