Early one morning I found myself with some unusual “idle time” in the Nashville airport. Walking past the entrance to the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) checkpoint, I noticed an elderly African-American lady scurry up, looking very dignified in her well-pressed …
Resilience Blog
Issue 9: Grateful for Grace
Welcome to Thanksgiving! As always, this will be a week of mixed emotions for many — perhaps a sarcastic “What do I have to be thankful for?” Or a bittersweet time to remember fond times with family and friends who …
Grateful for Grace
Soon many of us will find ourselves seated around a Thanksgiving meal with family and friends, just as God has “seated us with Him in the heavenly places.” The word seated in this Ephesians 2:6 verse is past tense, meaning …
Issue 8: Resilient Enough to Get Back Into the Saddle
Fellow Resilient Warrior Randy, I hope your week is going well! No doubt we all are experiencing the normal ups and downs of life. Prayerfully, each of us is able to place whatever joy or trial we may be facing into the …
Issue 7: Where would we be without our Veterans?
Fellow Resilient Warrior, Greetings in advance of Veterans Day next Monday! This edition will appropriately focus on honoring our Veterans. While we all need Resilience God Style, we recognize that our Veterans often represent the “exoderm” of our Nation, suffering …
Where would we be without our Veterans?
On this Veterans Day 2019, we must ask ourselves a very important question: “Where would we be without our Veterans?” What if they had concluded it was too windy, too wet, and too uncomfortable to venture onto the beaches of …
Issue 6: Embracing the Moments When Your Entire Life Changes
Fellow Resilient Warrior, Greetings in the Ultimate Resilient Warrior, Jesus! We have discussed the reality of disappointment, heartache, and trauma in each of our lives. Jesus likewise went through this — Hebrews 12:1-3 summarizes it well: Therefore, since we have …
Embracing the Moments When Your Entire Life Changes by Charles George
I recently attended a thought-provoking and insightful Resilience Conference conducted by Bob Dees. What made this conference significant to me is the timing. Four years ago on July 30, 2015, I experienced one of the most devastating days of my …
Issue 5: Growing in Hope During Seasons of Infirmity
Fellow Resilient Warrior, Avoiding bitterness is key to a healthy and joyful life. Bitterness is the poison we drink to kill someone else — how crazy is that! In our culture of microaggressions, safe spaces, and trigger warnings; bitterness has …
Issue 4: Do Not Grow Slack in Your Day of Distress
Fellow Resilient Warrior Friend, As the weeks fly past, it is important to be intentional about certain things, lest we be held captive by the “tyranny of the urgent” for our entire lives. While all of us want to “finish strong,” …
Issue 3: Turn On Your Searchlight, and Point It At The Sky!
Issue #3 October 03, 2019 Fellow Resilient Warrior, I pray you have had a good week, navigating the small and big trials of life with grace, wisdom, and resilience. I again thank you for your stories and comments regarding …
Issue 2: Gaining Altitude
Issue #2 September 26, 2019 Hi Friend, Some of you may be just joining the Resilience God Style community while this may be other’s first dive into the pool… or better yet, your first opportunity to learn about how …
Issue 1: Getting Upstream to Avoid Tragedy
Hi Friend, Welcome to the first Resilience God Style Newsletter! Resilience is a critical life skill, allowing each of us to grow better, stronger, wiser through the inevitable adversities of life. Our objective is to help one become more resilient — …
They Rode As Champions
Consider the 1945 rescue and repatriation of the Bataan Death March survivors who had been brutally tortured and malnourished at the Cabanatuan prison camp in the Philippines: A convoy of large troop-carrying trucks motored down the road and halted alongside …
Turn On Your Searchlight, and Point It At The Sky!
BOILERS CHURNING HOT, USS Doyle sliced through the sea with the urgency of a bullet. Over the radio, Claytor had heard that Marks collected more than fifty men, and also about the second Dumbo (a downed seaplane). This meant there …
Don’t Grow Slack in Your Day of Distress
His room at Flossenburg was simple—nothing on the plaster walls—just a wooden door with a big lock, a few feet from where he was executed, a few weeks before Allies liberated the Flossenburg Nazi German concentration camp. I was humble …
Getting Upstream to Avert Tragedy
Today I will attend a funeral – a father who took his life. Loving family, successful business, active in church – hard to understand, yet very real. This tragedy is another indication that suicide knows no bounds, cutting across …
Growing in Hope during Seasons of Infirmity
Whether you and I are eight, eighteen, or eighty; we will encounter physical infirmity – short term illness or recovery from injury, or perhaps a long-term medical condition that becomes our constant companion. While we are exhorted to “give thanks …
Resilient Enough To Get Back In The Saddle
I spent time with a young officer who had worked for me in the past. He was getting ready to assume command of a battalion sized formation (roughly 700 troops) which would deploy to combat. In an unusual moment …
Pursuit of Happiness
What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils? I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor--it is the gift of God. ~ (Ecclesiastes 3:9, 12, 13)
The Wounds of War
“It was the first day of the term, and 16 West Point cadets were filing into their C Hour class in Leadership in Thayer Hall. At 09:50, the instructor called the class to attention, received the attendance report from the section marcher, and told the cadets to take their seats. ‘There’s one interesting thing you should know about me,’ the instructor said, ‘I’m blind. I can’t see anything. So, raising your hand in this class is pretty much going to be a waste of time.’
Bouncing Back
What did this process of bouncing back...look like for Allen Clark, Vietnam Veteran, successful banker, distinguished leader in the Department of Veterans Affairs, founder of the Combat Faith ministry to veterans, and author of Wounded Soldier, Healing Warrior, a personal story of a Vietnam Veteran who lost his legs, but found his soul?...a few snapshots of Allen experienced inexplicable loss in his life: the loss of his two legs, and the shattering of dreams for the future.
Weather The Storms
We can spiritually "weather the storms" with prayer. May we unashamedly cry out to God in prayer. God does not need our call out to Him to be highly sophisticated--it's simply honest and real communication with the living God.
