Lent - Day 19

Lent - Day 19

John 2:13-22

Living Well through Lent 2015
Today's entry by The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows

Keep on Keepin' on

Resilience is the ability to keep on going after you have had enough of the status quo.  That may not be the dictionary definition of "resilience," but when I think of people who appear to bounce back from life's difficulties, they often bear this trait. I think of my maternal grandmother as resilient. Her formal education ended before she finished elementary school, and she led what was, by all measures, a hard life helping to raise her siblings while share-cropping someone else's farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. She knew righteous anger at the systems of injustice that made her life as a black woman difficult, but didn't let it consume her -- she was able to "keep on keepin' on."

When Jesus "lost it" in the Temple, it was clear that he had had enough with the institutional hypocrisy that he witnessed all around him. And confirmed in his belovedness as God's Son -- and with crystal clarity about his vocation and mission -- Jesus defined "keep on keepin' on." His steady movement toward Jerusalem, the cross on Calvary, and the resurrection he foretold kept his heart and spirit from being stuck in the status quo.

One of my favorite lines from Hannah and her Sisters is this: "The heart is a very, very resilient little muscle. It really is." Life will too often test the resilience of our hearts, but God desires that we "keep on keepin' on," trusting that something new -- indeed, resurrection itself -- lies ahead.

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From Duane: I could tell a very similar story about my grandmother (though she was white) and her resilience throughout her 85 years. It inspired and challenged me to grow in my life and to grow in my relationship with God.  I thank God for having her in my life!