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Commentary

Humans Are Often Resilient, but Christians Have Every Reason to Be

September 22, 2024

In North Korea, attempts at escaping the communist country or its prison camps often lead to execution on the spot. The horrors of what people in that part of the world endure are unfathomable. And while numerous details of life inside North Korea are still widely unknown, Yeonmi Park escaped the country at age 13, and has since made it her mission to share about its terror.

“I wasn’t loved, I wasn’t free, and I wasn’t safe,” she wrote in her book, “In Order to Live.” “I was alive, but everything that made life worth living was gone. There were so many desperate people on the streets crying for help that you had to shut off your heart or the pain would be too much.”

In one interview, Park explained how in North Korea the word “depression” doesn’t exist. When you experience the effects of severe trauma, she said, “They don’t give you the word depression to describe that.” It wasn’t until coming to America that Park learned of therapy and counseling as ways to work through such experiences and emotions that harm our psyche. “In North Korea,” she added, it “was normal seeing dead bodies” on the street — “like looking at a tree.” But even when Park came to understand just how abnormal that is, her response was that “humans are very resilient.” There are so many people who endure a kind of pain we can hardly begin to imagine and “come out of it very strong.”

Park is right. Humans are resilient.

As someone who escaped from communism, Park shed light on something that we in a first world country likely don’t often consider. It’s easy to run to the grocery store to get almost anything we could need without thinking twice about the fact that so many countries lack drinkable water. We can travel quickly using our cars to get almost anywhere while forgetting that young children in Africa travel hours to get to school. In America, we have the Constitution that protects our rights and freedoms of speech, religion, the bearing of arms, and much more, while practicing religion gets you thrown into concentration camps or prisons throughout China and other countries. As Americans, we’re blessed beyond measure. But of course, that doesn’t mean we’re spared from hardship.

In fact, every person in the world experiences hardship. Death still steals our loved ones, violence affects our lives, and the political landscape often impacts our quality of life. Even in our country, countless Americans can barely afford to get by, and so many have tragically become victims of substance abuse, sexual crimes, kidnappings, or murders. Sin exists everywhere, and its mission is to kill and destroy. And because sin affects all people, we all, from time to time, face the reality of our need for resilience. Here are two things we ought to keep in mind.

  1. Suffering often produces strength.

Consider Job. He lost everything — his children, property, and physical health. He suffered tremendously and cursed the day of his birth. Yet, the conclusion of his story is resilience. Enduring the immense suffering, he remained faithful to God, who graciously restored what he lost.

Consider Joseph. He was sold into slavery by his own brothers and faced unjust imprisonment in Egypt. But he pushed through, and eventually, Joseph rose to power — a position he used to then glorify God.

Beyond the Bible, persecuted Christians around the world today are beautiful examples of resilience. We don’t have to look far to see those being thrown into jail, tortured, or shunned for their faith. Even so, they hold fast to the hope that is within them, and they are stronger because of it.

Humans all around the world and throughout history provide unending examples of what resilience looks like. Cancer survivors, parents who experience the loss of children, innocent victims of communism and war crimes, and much more are clear examples of how suffering often produces strength. Everyday people conquer fears they never thought they could conquer, escape abuse they thought they were permanently chained to, or pushed through trauma they never thought they’d recover from. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, humans are resilient.

  1. Our strength comes from God.

However, one clarification should be made. I firmly believe humans are resilient, ultimately, because we were created to be. And yet, we were not created to be resilient by our own strength. Arguably, history often demonstrates that the most prominent cases of resilience are those who find their strength from God.

Corrie Ten Boom, a holocaust survivor, remained faithful to God. Joni Erickson Tada, a quadriplegic, remained faithful to God. Louis Zamperini, a survivor of three different Japanese concentration camps, remained faithful to God. Elizabeth Elliot, whose husband was killed by a tribe in Ecuador, remained faithful to God. Yoenmi Park, after facing a horrendous childhood under communism, was called to faith in God.

With these few examples, we see even more how Christians should be most aware of where our strength comes from. And Scripture is full of verses that emphasize this, such as Joshua 1:9, which reads, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” In Philippians 4:13, Paul proclaimed, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Additionally, he wrote in Romans 8:37, “[W]e are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” And to hopefully conquer all doubt, Deuteronomy 20:4 declares, “For the Lord your God is He who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”

From Genesis to Revelation, we see the beautiful story of a faithful God who will never abandon His people. Sacred Scripture helps us understand just how loving, gracious, merciful, tender, and mighty He is. And not only does the Bible help us understand who the God we serve is, but it also lays out the promises He has made to those who put their faith in Him.

While humans at large can be described as resilient, it is the Christian who should be able to stand through anything, because our “help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2). We understand “that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). No matter how excruciating our experiences may be, how troubling or despairing, we will always have hope in anguish, strength in weakness, and purpose in pain because of Christ and His work, which provided the way for salvation. This isn’t just good news. This is soul-saving, life-altering, fantastic, and indescribably incredible news!

Ultimately, the Christian does not live for the here and now. Biblically speaking, we’re sojourners and exiles (1 Peter 2:11), wandering the earth as a temporary dwelling place. As Paul declared in Philippians 3:20, “[O]ur citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Heaven is what we were made for. Heaven is what we wait for. Heaven is where each one of our tears will be personally wiped away by the finger of God, and our troubles will finally — and eternally — be over.

So, to the church I say: Yes, we are resilient. Simply because with Christ, we have every and all reason to be.

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.



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