Your Prescription
Excerpt from ‘Resilient’ by John Eldredge
 

'Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil. When the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight they were roused by the shout, “Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and meet him!” All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. Then the five foolish ones asked the others, “Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.”’

Matthew 25:1-8

...Throughout the Scriptures the Holy Spirit is connected with oil. We know we are meant to be filled with the Spirit, with God’s presence. If we add to that the reality C.S. Lewis pointed out, that God is the fuel the human soul runs on, I think the parable makes sense.

God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine...
Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on.

But of course – God is the fountain of life. We are only empty vessels, needing a source of life. It is Jesus-within-us that gives us resilience. I think what happened to those unfortunate bridesmaids is that they ran out of God! They didn’t see to it that they were filled with God, and when things wore on through the night, they ran out.

Let’s make sure we are filled with God. It requires intention, the parable is clear about that.
Summing up all we have covered thus far, here’s our situation as best we know it:

1. We’ve all beeen softened, weakened, robbed of resilience from years of living in the Comfort Culture.
(Our biggest crisis was something like a long line at Starbucks or our phone battery dying.)
2. Then came global trauma in the years of the pandemic and its sociodramas. So we are depleted and beat up.
3. We are in trauma rehab now, and we need to take that rehab seriously. Pretending everything is back to normal is delusional.
4. We’re therefore in an especially vulnerable place right now. Desolation and other predatory forces are trying to make us give up, lose heart, abandon our faith, or simply give our hearts to comforters other than God.

Jesus urges us toward endurance, resilience. It’s available in Him. But it won’t just happen. We must take hold of the strength that prevails.

So what’s your plan to make it through?
You need a plan, dear ones. Resilience and victory aren’t going to come with a swipe on your home screen.
Honestly, it can be as simple as this adjustment:

The world really has gone mad.
I’m not going to get pulled down with it.
I’m readjusting my life around recovery and resilience;

this is my orientation now.

People do this all the time – we adjust our lives to make room for the birth of a child, or for a career change, or to pursue a degree, or a dream, or simply to take up cycling.
Given everything we’ve covered in this book so far, I’m suggesting we adjust our lives to provide recovery from the past and build resilience for the days ahead.

But I’m in a real bind.

I want to make suggestions that I know would be truly helpful. I also recognize that most folks feel as though they have no margin – emotionally, mentally, or in any other way.

The last thing I want to do is increase your load.

So let me first say this – if you do nothing else, and you want recovery and resilience, I would strongly recommend two things:

 

1. First, renew your love and devotion to Jesus.

Give time each day to loving him. This deepens your union and allows you to draw upon the life of Jesus-within-you. So simple, but most folks don’t even spend five minutes a day simply loving Jesus. They don’t know what they’re missing.

2. Second, create a little margin in your life to allow your soul room to breathe.

You can’t just keep slogging on; you have to make room for recovery and resilience. It can start with five to ten minutes, morning and evening. A few evenings each week where you aren’t doing anything. A day off now and then.

And in that margin, in the space you create, you ask for the supernatural graces. You ask for attachment, the strength that prevails, the glory of God, the river of life.

Descend into your innermost being and commune with Jesus there. I promise you , these two things will make a world of difference in your life.