A Word about Resilience from Matthew 6:34

Today I am sharing a word about resilience as I comment on Matthew 6:34.

With all of the drama and trauma of the past year, no doubt many of us have experienced a high level of emotional stress which has, at least from time to time, become distress. 

We all have dealt with this situation in the best way we could, and that reminds me of some experiences from my past service in the Army.

A Stressful Time:

During the summer of 1981 I went to Fort Bragg, NC for several weeks of advanced officer cadet training and evaluation. The course was designed to put cadets under mental, emotional, physical, and social stress to evaluate if we were able to adapt and to exert leadership under those circumstances.

While I had previously completed the US Army Airborne School, and I had already experienced living in an open-bay barracks before, I found myself having some trouble standing up to the stress I was feeling. 

While I was still functional, I was very stressed, and unsure how to handle it. One particular area of trouble was the fact I was not sleeping well because I was thinking about the challenges of the next day.

Peaceful Moments:

Then, one night in my bunk, God brought an idea to my mind. He taught me to not dread tomorrow, but to focus on my current situation. In fact, the very words that He led me to say to myself were, “No matter what they might do to us tomorrow, right now I am O.K. No one is bothering me at the moment, and I need to enjoy this peace while I have it.” 

From that moment, my attitude was transformed, and I went on to successfully complete my cadet training, and after graduating from university, I was commissioned as an officer in the Regular Army. 

Although the purpose of our cadet training was to produce capable leaders by screening out those who did not meet the challenge, my time at Fort Bragg has another, more spiritual, effect on me. It brought to life a passage of Scripture that I had heard many times but had never before needed to apply to my life: 

“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34)

I knew that Scripture, but until I had lived it, it was not real to me. Living that Scripture required that I experience difficulty and stress. Without those I would have known this truth in my head, but not in my heart.

Now, nothing I have said above implies that I have become immune from stress; far from it. I still have to deal with stress, although I am now more concerned about taking care of those for whom I am responsible than I am about myself. 

The Key Take-aways: 

1. Our world is fallen and imperfect (and stressful) because of mankind’s sin, but God loves us, and He helps us in our infirmities. 

2. Things always work better when we do them God’s Way as revealed in His Word.

May God bless us all in 2021 and may we all learn to live empowered by God’s Word and by His Holy Spirit.

Every blessing, 

Dr.  Otis Corbitt