In the early days of the COVID 19 epidemic, our lives were thrown into great dishevel. We were trying to sort out the best course of action and what to believe. People kept saying they couldn’t wait to get back to normal. Things today are not the same as pre-COVID days. What most people failed to realize was that we would never return to normal because the changes and our experiences were creating a new normal.
As humans, most of us don’t like change, but from the moment we are conceived until the day we die, change is a part of our human experience. Lent has changed to Easter which gives us hope that the new normal of the future and our living through changes required to get there will be graced filled moments of resilience. Spring is a season of resilience that can teach us much.
What makes a person a saint and different from a bulk of other people is that when they fall or meet failure, they pick themselves up, with the help of God, and keep moving forward. One of my favorite sayings sums it up this way: “Even if you fall on your face, you are still moving forward.” (Victor Kalm) The key is getting up and moving forward.
An 
unfolding all around us. Flowers are popping up through the hard ground. Robins are finding worms. Leaves are starting to bud despite the cold of winter the trees had gone through. Spring, like Easter is full of hope, new life, and resilience.
Taryn Marie Stejskal, Ph.D., defines resilience as the ability not to bounce back to normal, but the ability to effectively face challenges, changes, and complexity in a way that ultimately enhances us, not diminishes us. Lent was our training ground.
Humbly accepting our vulnerability, woundedness, and brokenness is the beginning of true resilience. Empathy, perseverance, connecting to others, a spirit of gratitude, generosity, and holding on to hope and the possibilities that lie before us can help us to navigate and manage challenges and change. The opposite of these things would be “insanity” which is defined as doing the same things over and over again expecting different results.
St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians, reminds us that God comforts us in all our afflictions so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort which God has given to us. “For as we share in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” (2 Corth. 1:5). Why? For the good of others. As we joined our sacrifices and sufferings with those of Jesus during Lent, don’t be in a hurry to pick up again your pre-Lenten normal. We don’t have to be insane and go back to that normal. This life isn’t about you. It’s about loving others. The new normal of Easter awaits us. Move forward in the power of the resilience of the Resurrection.
For Reflection:
What are some spiritual lessons that COVID taught me about myself in regards to normal and changes? How can Dr. Stejskal’s definition of resilience help me navigate and manage challenges and change? The new normal of Easter awaits me. Am I open to move forward in the power of the resilience of the Resurrection or do I prefer the way of insanity?
Prayer:
Thank You Lord for spring, Easter, and new life. Help me to live as one of Your Easter children in the resilient power of Your Resurrection.
(blogged April 1, 2024)
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