LESSONS IN RESILIENCE FROM THE LIFE OF KING DAVID

Introduction

I feel somewhat privileged to be able to speak to you all on this the occassion of the departure of the Grade 10’s, their parents, and to the rest of the school on this the first send off for the Grade 10 ‘Giant’.

I have chosen to address you, Grade 10’s, on the topic of resilience.

Lesson 1: Remember

When you cast your mind back over your life, is there a moment when you experienced some hardship or difficulty and you regret that you were not as resilient perhaps as you should have been?

I have many such occasions when I should have been more resilient that I ended up being. One was on the the Giant 5 years ago. I was with a girls group and we almost halfway into the Giant. We had just spent the previous night a third of the way up Langilibalele pass next to the Bushman’s stream. We had been buffeted by the wind for much of the previous day and the sound of shaking tents and flapping flysheets had kept us up most of the night. When we left camp that morning, the wind was still significant but not prohibitive. However, as we made our way up the left shoulder of the stream, the wind gusts slowly increased in strength and duration, until eventually the wind was shoving so much air down my throat that I had to look to the side to breathe as I made may way up the pass. I made it up to a significant rock and took shelter behind it as I waited for the group to catch up. As I looked back down the path, the wind was wreaking havoc with the group. Girls were hanging onto each other for dear life as took two steps up the bath and were blown three steps back down again. One of the other leaders came up beside me and tried to shout something to me over the sound of the wind. He said, “Sir, the girls are not going to get up this pass in this wind”. I had to make a decision, I thought, I so I decided that the group would go up the pass without their bags and then head down by the same pass. This would prove to be the wrong decision as by lunch time, the wind had calmed down. I have often thought, If only I had been more resilient and pushed on through that storm. If only, I had been more resilient in that circumstance.

I think it is a fair criticism of the world in which we live to call it soft, overly sensitive, and easily offended. That is certainly the world that I grew up in. There are many who value political correctness over truth, popularity more than integrity, sudden power more than progressive character development. Needless to say, Grade 10’s, that as your teachers we hope and pray that, aside from your growing knowledge in History, Science, Life Science, Mathematics etc. that you learn to how to do life as well. To this end, it is my earnest hope and prayer that God will use this Grade 10 Giant experience to produce resilience in you.

Now, I recognise, as I am sure you do, that this is not an insignificant prayer, you might go so far as to say that it is a scary prayer. In order to develop certain character qualities, the Lord needs to bring situations and circumstances into your life that will encourage this character quality to develop within you. If an impatient person asks for patience, the Lord might make them wait outside home affairs for three consecutive days to apply for a passport, or bring a certain person along their path who is highly annoying so that patience may develop. To pray for resilience is to invite the Lord to challenge you in various ways so that this character quality develops in you.

What is resilience?

To help define resilience, I have brought this elastic band along. If the band is stretched, you will see that it returns to its original size soon thereafter. A tennis ball that is squeezed is also an example of a resilient object.

When applied to people, a resilient person is one that is able to endure adversity, to take the knocks that will inevitably come and then bounce back from them. Perhaps one of the best descriptions of resilience that I have heard, does not come from a dictionary, but from the popular film series ‘Rocky’. In Rocky VI, Rocky is speaking to his son, Robert Balboa Jr., who is struggling to break out of his fathers shadow and make his own way in life. Robert blames his father for his failures until Rocky stops him and sets things straight:

He say, “Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”.

Resilience is about taking the hits that life throws at you, or absorbing the many pressures, difficulties and pains that come along life's way and then bouncing back.

I want you to see though, that resilience is the end result of a process. Resilience doesn’t just appear out of no where. It isn’t a quality of a certain personality type. No, resilience is developed over time, it is the end result of a process of learning. I would argue that it is developed as a person courageously faces up to their fears, trials and difficulties and doesn’t allow those fears, trials and difficulties to dominate their life and experience. You could say that Rocky had experienced and bounced back from many difficulties over the course of his life, his son was only starting to learn this.

There are a number of examples of men and woman of the Christian faith displaying resilience. But perhaps, the most well known is the example of King David in 1 Samuel 17:10-11 .

1 Samuel 17:10–11 ESV

And the Philistine said, “I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man, that we may fight together.” When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

Goliath came out and taunted the Israelite army for 40 days and 40 nights in a similar way and again we read of Israel slinking back in fear time and time again.

Again in 1 Samuel 17:24 we read, “All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid.”

Until David steps in. In front of the King and all Israel, David says 1 Samuel 17:26 “And David said to the men who stood by him, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?””. This average sized early teenage boy steps out to face a giant of a man in Goliath. He doesn’t step out to face Goliath quivering and shaking with fear, he is confident, so confident in fact that he chooses not even to wear armour.

We know how the story ends, but how could a 13 or 14 year old by be so resilient, so resolute, so determined against a man as mighty as Goliath. Well, David had learned resilience when shepherding his fathers sheep. When questioned by King Saul on why he should be able to fight Goliath, David says 1 Samuel 17:34 - 37

1 Samuel 17:34–37 ESV

But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!”

Do you see that David’s resilience and courage are neither sudden nor lucky. David had been prepared for such an hour as this by the various and many difficulties that he has experienced prior to this moment. Here in this moment, at this point in History, the foreknowledge of God and the determination of David would conspire together to redeem Israel from the tyranny of the Philistines and confirm David’s calling as future King of Israel.

So what about you?

Education has been loosely defined as preparation for life. It is our responsibility and privilege to not only educate in the classical subjects, but to teach you to be resilient. This experience on the Giant is one of those occasions where you will be put to the test physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. It is my prayer that the Lord will test you in areas of current weakness, so that you may develop and grow in those areas and so build your resilience. Let us pray together.

Lesson 2: Repercussions

Give a brief summary of what we learned yesterday.

In 2019, I went with on the Giant with a boys group. The trip was going smoothly for the most part and the group was generally working well together. That was until one of the boys in the group lost the tent poles for the tent that he was sharing with his friend. I clearly remember standing on top of Mount Durnford, the highest point between Langilibalele pass and Giants Castle, and the boy who lost the poles breathlessly asked if he could run back to see if he could find the poles. The problem is that Mount Durnford rises approximately 250m from the river valley down below. It had taken us close to three hours to get to the top of Mount Durnford. My answer was simple, No. He couldn’t remember when he had last seen them, or when he last had them. Finding them would be almost impossible. He was guttered at losing the poles and his friend, to whom the tent belonged, was also upset. The result was that both boys would have to find alternative accomodation for the remainder of the trip and three boys were now being squashed into two man tents with bags sleeping outside.

So what is the point? Sometimes the adversity that we experience comes as a consequence of our own actions.

How resilient are you?

Over the coming three mornings we are going to look at three different but related aspects of resilience,

Lesson 1: Recognise God’s soveriegnty over adversity - all people everywhere experience it. Adversity should be embraced.

Resentment in adversity

Lesson 2: Recognize and Respond

Lesson 3: Relationships

Lesson 4: Resign