New research suggests that resilience may have at least as much to do with how often people have faced adversity in past as it does with who they are — their personality, their genes, for example — or what they’re facing now. That is, the number of life blows a person has taken may affect his or her mental toughness more than any other factor.
“Frequency makes a difference: that is the message,” said Roxane Cohen Silver, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine. “Each negative event a person faces leads to an attempt to cope, which forces people to learn about their own capabilities, about their support networks — to learn who their real friends are. That kind of learning, we think, is extremely valuable for subsequent coping,” up to a point.
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In short, the findings suggest that mental toughness is something like the physical strength: It cannot develop without exercise, and it breaks down when overworked.
It reminds me of what God told Jeremiah when the inexperienced young prophet complained about his hardships (12:5)--
“If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?”
In other words, “Jerry, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Learn to trust me in these smaller hardships so you’ll be ready to trust me when the going really gets tough.”
I remember running across this verse for the first time in my 20s, whining to God like Jeremiah about some unfairness. Diane had decorated my home office with an art piece of horses in full gallop, and when I arrived at Jeremiah 12:5 in my daily Bible reading I looked up at that framed artwork, wondering what “horses” I’d have to compete with in the future. I resolved to excel at my current “race” with these “men on foot” so I would be prepared to “compete with horses” in the future.
A little Wednesday morning encouragement: Learn to trust God in whatever you’re facing now. It will get you through the current hardship, but it will train you to face the inevitable difficulties that come.
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