Friday, August 3, 2012

Thoughts in the Middle of the Night

Resilience in psychology refers to the idea of an individual's tendency to cope with stress and adversity. This coping may result in the individual "bouncing back" to a previous state of normal functioning, or simply not showing negative effects. A third, more controversial form of resilience is sometimes referred to as 'posttraumatic growth' or 'steeling effects' where in the experience adversity leads to better functioning (much like an inoculation gives one the capacity to cope well with future exposure to disease). Resilience is most commonly understood as a process, and not a trait of an individual.

Is there such a thing as spiritual resilience? Or maybe that is just a new word for qualities that have been called at other times endurance, patience, hope in the face of overwhelming circumstance.

Or another way to look at it is: Is all resilience pointing to God who is beyond, above, surrounding and supporting us?

All Resilience is Spiritual? If that is the case, what does that imply? Every time I bounce back from the hard stuff of life it is a statement of faith experienced?

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