After the Boston Marathon bombings several years ago, a friend asked me whether, as a veteran of the marathon, I would make a public statement about the events there, and whether I would return to Boston. And, she asked me if the bombings would deter me from running the Peachtree Road Race that year. My response to both questions was the same. My “statement” was to get out with friends the next day, and run, and to run on July 4th.
In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we are reminded that “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:1, 13-25)
We live in a complex world that is always changing and the response of any system—whether a family, a business, an economy, a church, or an ecosystem—to the shocks and disturbances of change depends on a number of factors. One of the adages of my band of trail runners is “Conditions may vary.” In other words, we seek to be prepared for the inevitable changes of the trail conditions, weather, and our own minds and bodies as we venture forth, and we do not give in to fear. We seek resilience. I have learned over the years that these changes are best encountered in community. And, I have learned that this is as true for life in general as it is for our recreational activities.
As a pastoral counselor and Episcopal priest, it is increasingly my conviction that resilience is best understood in the context of hope amidst anxiety and fear. Hope is deeply connected to our ability to cope with life’s difficulties and to live within—and into—communities of faith in ways that are life-giving and resilient. This is especially important in the midst of the life-depleting and debilitating culture of anxiety. In their book, Hope in the Age of Anxiety, Scioli and Biller refer to what they describe as “hopeful resiliency.”The authors believe hope to be at the core of what it means to be resilient. Of particular interest to those of us in the church is the “collaborative coping” of many religious individuals. The authors note that these believers see themselves as engaged in a “joint effort:”
They do not view themselves as passive souls needing explicit formulas to address life problems. They view their own strength and skill as important factors in coping with these problems. In Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he asserted, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.”
The authors see “spiritual integrity” as one of the building blocks of hopeful resiliency. Getting knocked down is as basic as being human—life just does this to us—and so is the desire to get back up. Indeed, the difference between those who repeatedly get back up and those who don’t is exactly the difference between those who are able to lead and those who aren’t. The name for this difference is resilience, the ability to get back up again and again. Kill hope, and resilience will die with it. And where resilience is displayed, there you see hope.
Resilience is best learned in community. We often think of resilience in individual terms: “this or that person is resilient.” But communities of hope—the calling of all Christian communities—are actually places that have resilience written into their being. They are founded on hope and their very existence testifies to the fact that getting back up is not simply a matter of the individual will. We can be helped back up, and we can learn how to help others get back up when they fall. Because of God’s work in Christ, we can, quite literally, hope for someone else, and they can hope for us and with us. Resilience is a communal practice. Fear can be contagious. And, hope is, too.
When we give in to fear, we become slaves not to love, but to those fears that would hold us in bondage. At times, we need community to remind us of this. This past Sunday, I was reminded of this truth again when lost electrical power during the second service. Despite this, our worship proceeded seamlessly thanks to your leadership, calm resilience, and your ability to stay the course in the midst of these vicissitudes. I’m so proud of you all, and grateful for each of you! Thank you all so much for your ongoing faithful and steadfast commitment to Holy Family in this season of transition. And thank you, too, for your resilience and creativity as we make our way forward.
I’ve mentioned in other contexts the wonderful book “Transitions” by William Bridges, and this quote, in particular, has been deeply important to me: “In other words, change is situational. Transition, on the other hand, is psychological. It is not those events, but rather the inner reorientation and self-redefinition that you have to go through in order to incorporate any of those changes into your life. Without a transition, a change is just a rearrangement of the furniture. Unless transition happens, the change won’t work, because it doesn’t “take.”― William Bridges, Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes
Together, we are engaging in the important work of transition amid the inevitable changes we, and the whole Episcopal Church—are experiencing. And, in a way, the challenges we faced on Sunday are an example of our ability to adapt to the “new normal” with flourishing and creativity. We’ll find a solution to the issues that created our mischievous power loss on Sunday morning, and this will be what Ron Heifetz calls a “technical fix.”
However, together we are also working on “adaptive change” as we find creative and imaginative ways to engage the new challenges, realities, and uncertainties that we, and the whole church, must address: “While technical problems may be very complex and critically important (like replacing a faulty heart valve during cardiac surgery), they have known solutions that can be implemented by current know-how. They can be resolved through the application of authoritative expertise and through the organization’s current structures, procedures, and ways of doing things. Adaptive challenges can only be addressed through changes in people’s priorities, beliefs, habits, and loyalties. Making progress requires going beyond any authoritative expertise to mobilize discovery, shedding certain entrenched ways, tolerating losses, and generating the new capacity to thrive anew.”― Ronald A. Heifetz, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World
I cannot imagine a better group with whom to navigate these transitions, and I am so very grateful for each of you! No matter the loss of electrical power on Sunday, the light shone in the “darkness” and we made our way. So shall it be as we work together for a bright and life-giving future at Holy Family.
Yes, “Conditions may vary,” resilience, and freedom from fear, borne of hope and love, abides.
I’ll catch you later on down the trail, and I hope to see you in church! Pentecost blessings, Bill+