When hardship comes, why do some people endure while others collapse?
In one widely reported study, psychologists monitored how 2,000 adults handled hardship. At the start of the study, the participants were asked to report all the upsetting life events they had experienced before entering the study. Things like divorce, the death of a friend or parent, a serious illness, living through a natural disaster, and so on. They were then told to report on how they were handling any new trials that arose during the study.
The two groups that had the hardest time coping in their current struggles were those who had faced a lot of past traumas and those who had faced none. Psychologists found that those with no previous traumatic experiences tended to catastrophize their current situations exactly like those who had experienced a lot of hardship. To “catastrophize” is to imagine that one’s current pain will end up unbearable and overwhelming.
Too many traumas can weaken your resilience, and too few won’t build any resilience at all. As you go through crisis times, you learn coping skills and you identify helpful resources. What results is a confidence that you can endure new hardships.
When Jeremiah was a young prophet, he complained to God about all the opposition he was facing. God replied, “Jerry, you ain’t seen nothing yet!” Okay, that’s the TGV, the Tom Goodman Version. Here’s Jeremiah 12:5 in the NIV:
“If you have raced with men on foot
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?”
It’s one of my favorite verses. We can apply it in two ways.
On the one hand, this verse means that you must face your current tough times with faith now because there are tougher times coming.
On the other hand, some of you are already in the greatest trial of your life. In that case, let this verse encourage you! You can face your current tough times with faith now because of all that God has already brought you through.
Let’s study more about this on Sunday. Join us at 10am on campus or online!Let’s study more about this on Sunday. Join us at 10am on campus or online!
Tom
Tom Goodman serves as pastor at Hillcrest Church in Austin, Texas. His sermons are available on YouTube and the HillcrestToGo Podcast and you can find him on Facebook and Twitter. If someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, sign up here to receive Tom’s weekly devotional in your email inbox.