The Flipside of Adversity That Should Encourage Resilience.
Life will not always be easy and it’s very easy to give up when faced with tough challenges. There is an anonymous quote that says, ‘for success, persistence has no substitute,’ you have no choice but to persist in the face of adversity in order to succeed. Steven Pressfield in his book, The war on Art, decries how some would be creative genius are limited by procrastination, and giving in “the inner resistance to do something” and shows how harmful this is to our long-term success.[1] Stephen King in his book On Writing, cites the feeling of inadequacy and fear of failure as limitations to creative art.[2] While Pressfield and King have written on inaction and their negative impact on long-term success, failure to persist in the pursuit of your life goals or vocation in the face of challenges, is equally and sometime overly dangerous to our long-term success. Simon Winchester’s well researched and well written story of Englishman William Smith, born in 1793, of overcoming adversity is a great example that should inspire one to be persistent in pursuing success.[3] It is the humane story of Smith’s dedication, endurance and achievement, in the face of sphere adversity to become the father of modern geology when in 1831, the quiet genius was finally awarded the Geological society of London’s highest award and King William IV offered him a lifetime pension. It is classic story of a son of a peasant with no class who made a startling discovery, worked hard to document his discovery through the creation of an epochal and a very beautiful hand-painted map. Instead of being recognized and honored for his great work, he was put in a debtor’s prison, a victim of plagiarism, and condemned to homelessness for ten years.
Joseph Campbell who was an author and teacher who took particular interest in mythology from his early childhood; was widely read and travelled as he studied different cultural and religious mythology across the world; and was especially influenced by Freudian psychoanalysis and Jungian mysticism, wrote about the monomyth. Campbell, in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he explores the theory that all mythology follows a common structure or story arc.[4] He uses the metaphor of the “hero” with a thousand faces, to imply the possibility of imposing the same protagonist into any story anywhere in the world, in any religion or culture. He therefore assumes that every story follows the same script of the “grand story” which is referred to as monomyth. He implies that we are more alike than our diverse world views would suggest and that we all live the same story which he refers to as the monomyth. This monomyth follows several steps where the hero moves from the known to the unknown with the help of supernatural forces who are mentors and helpers to overcome powerful evil forces, and then comes back to the known with the power to bestow goodies to others. Campbell summarizes the monomyth as, ‘a hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.’[5] It would be interesting to test the story of Smith against the grand story that is the monomyth. This monomyth has been used widely to test the quality of film scripts or any form of storytelling by many artist across the world, and it is very easy to be used to dismiss any variation. While Smiths story may fail in certain respects to follow the chronological order of the different structured stages of the monomyth, it does in many ways conform to the script. From his known world of canal digging as a peasant, he heeds to the call to adventure when he decides to document his geological discoveries. For twenty years he explores and puts together his findings to hand-create the epochal map, and enters the unfamiliar and unknown world where evil forces rise against him. He suffers adversity but his persistence against all the evil forces, inspires some helpers and mentors who eventually ensure that his work is recognized and he emerges the hero, who today is acknowledged as the “the father of modern geology.” Adversity can kill initiative and limit people from creativity and pursuing their life goals or vocation but Smith’s story is a great inspiration. The devastating covid19 pandemic was a great challenge to everyone across world; and the unprecedented fast and unpredictable changes in technology and keeping up, may be challenging for leaders. It is very important to keep up with the times and the changes that are taking place in the environment and to be resilient and persistent.
The church today is faced with the challenge of reaching the world with the Gospel in the midst of the covid19 and other adversities and to keep up with the fast pace of technological changes. Christian leaders have to learn to be resilient in a hostile environment of liberalism and outright hatred towards the church. The environment has changed and it is important for the church to evaluate whether the same approach to missions will continue to be as effective in fulfilling the great commission. With the fast and unpredictable changes in technology and outright resistance to the Christian values, should we consider other ways of propagating the Gospel? The latest and perhaps the greatest test to the propagation of the Gospel has been the covid19 pandemic that led to the lockdowns across the globe and literary brought the world to a standstill. There was simply no way of physically accessing people. This pandemic has opened people’s eyes to new ways and opportunities of using technology to accomplish tasks with even better results. Churches resorted to having online services and using social media to communicate to their members and reach out to the unchurched. We cannot afford to give in to adversities, and have to be persistent in the face of adversities, as we open ourselves to other ways to fulfilling the great commission. In my research for the case for holistic ministry I am looking at alternative ways beyond the pulpit preaching, that the church can reach people and holistically transform communities that are poor and marginalized. Many churches have resigned to only attending the spiritual needs through the preaching of the word while ignoring social and economic justice issues, because they feel inadequate. As church leaders, Jesus calls us to resilience and persistence in fulfilling the great and noble mandate of Christian leadership. Our high calling and mandate as leaders is resilience in paying the price to change the world for Christ.
[1] Steven Pressfield. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. (London, United Kingdom. Orion Publishing Company, 2003).
[2] Stephen King. On Wring: A Memoir of The Craft. (New York. Leatherbound Bestsellers (Simon & Schuster), 2014).
[3] Simon Winchester. The Map that Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology. (New York City, USA. HarperCollins e-Books, 2009).
[4] Joseph Campbell. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. (Boston. Princeton University Press, 1972).
[5] Joseph Campbell. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. (Boston. Princeton University press, 1972).
About the Author
Mary Kamau
Christ follower, Mother of 3 Biological children and one Foster daughter, Wife, Pastor, Executive Director of Institutional Development and Strategy in Missions of Hope International, www.mohiafrica.org.One response to “The Flipside of Adversity That Should Encourage Resilience.”
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Mary, I appreciate how you connected this week’s reading to so many previous books. I also enjoyed your call for persistence in this cultural moment. I fear that the Western culture struggles with persistence and resilience. For so long, the comfort of many blessings from God make the absence of those things a difficult path to walk. Are there ways you believe leaders can build persistence, especially those who have not needed to do so in significant ways?