What do you do when you think your biggest problems...

... are behind you, only to find out you have just been warming up?  John Ortberg says “Reality sets in. We face the obstacles. Unexpected conflict saps our spirit. Plans go awry. People we were counting on let us down. The economy zigs when it should have zagged.  Just when we were hoping for easy portage and smooth sailing, we are looking at the Rocky Mountains. What happens next?”  What do you do when you face the Rockies and how do you have the resiliency to keep going?  When Lewis and Clark were making their famous trek across our country they faced many obstacles ...none bigger than when they thought they were almost done with their trip just to realize they were facing the Rocky Mountains.

This is where being resilient servants of God becomes our survival. There is a field of study in the social sciences who have devoted much time to this idea of resiliency. They studied prisoners of war, those held in captivity in concentration camps, those who have faced crippling accidents or diseases and they found this about resilient people:

1. Resilient people continually seek to reassert some command and control over their destiny rather than seeing themselves as passive victims.

2. Resilient people have a larger than usual capacity for what might be called moral courage–for refusing to betray their values.

3. Resilient People find purpose and meaning in their suffering.

We can add to this list as believers in Christ that: 

4. Resilient people have a deep dependency on God. What do we do when you really believe you have made it through the greatest trial of your life just to find out something bigger is in the way?  Joseph in the book of Genesis found himself looking at the Rocky Mountains several times...captured by his brothers, thrown in a pit, sold into slavery, accused of rape, forgotten in prison...it seemed that God had forsaken him and his dreams.  For about 22 years Joseph faced one mountain after the other but he was able to have a deep dependency on God and to be resilient...how?  When he would face another test or obstacle the Scriptures would always say, “And the Lord was with Joseph...”  How many of you know that we can be resilient and face anything if we know that God is with us.  God used Joseph to save the then known world...How awesome is that?