Watching a six-year-old erase the letter L, brush the paper clean, and draw a new one to better fit the OVE she had already written so carefully got me thinking about that L. What had happened to it on paper—its erasure and reinsertion—never actually touched the specific idea of L. External circumstances did not define it or confine it. And it was ready to properly start the word LOVE in the next moment. 

Something so simple can help illustrate the spiritual precept of resilience in the whole of our experience. Given the headlines on health, the economy, the weather, and the environment, the appearance of earthly life seems to be one of fragility. And there are times when it feels as though there is an effort to erase us or to eliminate our voices—individually or collectively. But time and again, we see modest-to-momentous examples of the fundamental indestructibility of God’s universe, including each one of us. 

It helps to have some good friends from the Bible who’ve gone through the worst and come out with solid proofs of resilience to encourage us in our low moments. The Apostle Paul is a go-to mentor for surmounting setbacks and overcoming daunting situations. He’s blunt about the difficulties he faced, writing to fellow Christians about the multiple times he was beaten, shipwrecked, in danger on the road, experiencing hunger and cold, and facing the anger of mobs or the infighting of those around him (see II Corinthians 11:24–27).