Resistance and Resilience: Life’s Hormesis in Christ

Life’s Horm-what-now?!

Welcome to The Resilient Series—a collection of reflections from wise, faith-filled voices exploring what it means to live resilient in Jesus. Each week, we’ll hear from a different writer—authors, pastors, coaches, neurosurgeons, and everyday disciples—sharing their stories, Scripture insights, and hard-won hope. Whether you’re arriving here at the start or joining partway through, each piece stands alone and invites you to draw near to the God who strengthens us through every season.

This week, I’m reflecting on how resistance and resilience often travel together. Over this past year, I’ve felt the stretch of pressure and the surprising grace that’s met me again and again. I’ve come to see that the places where life presses hardest can also become the very ground where God chooses to grow us.

Jesus and I share the same birthday week, whoop!

Another year of being shaped, stretched, and sustained by grace. Birthdays have a way of making you look both ways: back over the year that’s been, and forward into whatever’s next. And if I’m honest, this year has held its fair share of resistance: moments that have pressed, perplexed, and refined me in ways I didn’t expect.

But as I’ve reflected, one theme keeps surfacing: resistance and resilience often travel together. The pressures that test us most deeply often become the very ground where God grows strength within us.

Have you ever noticed how some of life’s toughest challenges can leave you stronger afterward? Maybe it’s the strain of a difficult conversation, the fatigue of unfulfilled plans, the weight of doubt, or even the whisper of fear that tells you to give up. The heaviness of it all makes everything within you just want to give up and go home. It’s the heavy thlipsis kind of crushing-pressure that Jesus talks about when He says we will have trouble.

But what if in these hard moments there’s actually an opportunity for resilience to grow?

Scientists call this phenomenon hormesis: the idea that mild, manageable stressors strengthen an organism, preparing it for future challenges. In nature, hormesis is everywhere. For example, learning about this fun fact, I discovered that tiny nematode worms, C. elegans, live only a few weeks. However, if you expose them to mild heat stress early in life, they become resistant to future stress and can live longer. Maybe something more relatable… I’m sure you’ve seen trees bending in storms but not breaking. The pressure may well twist their trunks, but it also deepens their roots, making them sturdier over time. Rivers carve canyons not by avoiding rocks, but by flowing over and around them, persistently shaping beauty along the way.

In other words, resistance is not wasted.

Resistance can trigger adaptation, growth, and resilience—physically, psychologically, and spiritually. Psychologists studying human behaviour have found the same principle applies to our minds: each time we face friction, discomfort, or challenge and (here’s the key bit) don’t give up, our brains literally rewire, forming pathways that make us more capable of enduring future stress. Like a muscle strengthened under strain, our spirits are shaped when we lean into resistance, rather than shrink from it.

The Apostle Paul captures this perfectly in 2 Corinthians 4:8–9:

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

At first glance, it’s a lovely little list of endurance. But when we dive into the original Greek even more depth is revealed. When Paul writes that they are “hard pressed on every side,” the words literally describe being pressed beyond measure, overwhelmed by forces from multiple directions. This wasn’t a poetic exercise for Paul. This was real life: persecution, slander, imprisonment, and relational challenges threatened to overwhelm him. Yet he insists they are not crushed. Despite the pressure, he knew their essential value and calling in Christ remained intact.

“Perplexed, but not in despair” acknowledges all the times we feel confused and uncertain of the way forward. And yet, even in that not-knowing, God’s Spirit sustains hope. “Persecuted, but not abandoned” underscores that opposition is real, but God’s presence is constant. And finally, “struck down, but not destroyed” reminds us that even when life knocks us off our feet, we are never finally undone.

Our resilience is not our own—it is God’s sustaining power at work in us.

I think this is the key difference between human endurance and Christian resilience. Our culture often equates resilience with grit, toughness, or mental fortitude. But biblical resilience is Spirit-empowered persistence. It is not about holding ourselves together, but being held together by God. Life will press, confuse, and threaten to overwhelm, but in Jesus, resistance becomes the training ground for growth, and endurance is born out of reliance, not self-sufficiency.

So, what does it look like to live resiliently as one who is in Christ?

1. Name the resistance
   Start by noticing where life is pressing on you. Is it fear, doubt, fatigue, or a circumstance beyond your control? Identifying it is the first step in learning from it. Resistance loses its power when it is brought into the light and handed to God.

2. Anchor your identity in God, not circumstances
   When Paul says “not crushed,” he reminds us that God sustains our worth and calling. Our identity is rooted in Him, not in success, comfort, or approval. When we trust this, resistance stops feeling like a threat to who we are.

3. Leverage friction for growth
   Like the worms, trees, and rivers, small, repeated acts of faithfulness train our spirits. Prayer, Scripture, obedience, acts of service, even if it feels small or ineffective, when employed ‘again and again’ will build spiritual “muscle” for enduring greater pressures.

4. Trust God in uncertainty
   There will be times when we just don’t get it. Perplexity is normal; despair is optional. Trusting God in the unknown trains our soul to rely on Him rather than our understanding.

5. Persist, knowing you are not alone
   Being struck down at times is inevitable, but being destroyed is not. Resilience is not perfection—it’s persistence. It’s the daily practice of getting up, leaning on the Spirit, and stepping forward even when it hurts. Again and again.

Resilience is the intersection of resistance and reliance.

Like hormesis in nature, friction shapes us. Like Paul, we can acknowledge the pressure without despair. And like Christ, we are held, strengthened, and equipped for the next step.

Jesus, help us see resistance not as an obstacle but as the soil where You grow resilience in us. Strengthen us with Your Spirit so that we may endure, trust, and keep stepping forward—not in our own strength, but in Yours. Amen.

Reflection question:
Where are you experiencing resistance today, and how might God be using it to build Christlike resilience in you?

As I look back, I’m realising resilience isn’t something I muster—it’s something God forms in me as I learn to rely on Him. Resistance becomes the soil of growth, and endurance the fruit of grace. My prayer is that as you read, you’ll begin to see your own pressures differently—not as signs of failure, but as invitations into deeper trust and Spirit-shaped strength.

Next week we’re back to the guest posts with the amazing Jonathon M. Seidl!