One of the common charges laid against the current generation is that we lack resilience. New phrases such as ‘snowflake’ (one who ‘melts’ under slight heat) and ‘triggered’ (one who get angry over minor infractions) show we no longer cope with discomfort
This stems from society’s slow drift from our Christian roots. The Enlightenment taught that religion was restraining society from freedom, pleasure and progress. The neo-atheists then added to this their teaching that a universe without a creator is a universe without meaning (we’re a big cosmic accident). Yet the human heart longs for meaning in life. So the unconscious (or perhaps conscious) mantra of the west is now to place freedom, pleasure and progress as the ultimate goal (i.e. meaning) of life.
The big problem with this is that if the meaning of life is to seek pleasure, then anything that removes pleasure must be bad, and therefore avoided at all costs. Helicopter parents are a prime example of this. They hover over their children, ready to deflect any emotional discomfort that comes their way. However, this robs those children of learning how to handle life’s curveballs themselves. So when they enter adulthood, they lack the tools to cope with even the smallest hardships.
Our lack of resilience leaves humans in great danger, as we’ve seen in the increase in mental illness and suicide in recent years. While western society’s highest virtue may be pleasure, God’s highest virtue is godliness. And one of the main ways God builds godliness in his creatures is to bring hardships into their life. What made Joseph such a godly leader was his 12 years as a slave and prisoner.
So let us ‘not make light of the Lord’s discipline’ (Heb 12:5). While hardship is never easy, we can get through it by (i) remembering that God is sovereign in this hardship, (ii) we can cry out to God for help in our hardship, and (iii) God is refining us into the beautiful Christian he wants us to become.
