Resilient world?

Climate change, zero-hours contracts, student debt, sexualised society, social-media dependence, housing crisis, Brexit. There’s no doubt that we are living in an era of great uncertainty and so it’s no surprise that rates of mental ill health, especially in young people, are rising.

A fragile world makes for fragile hearts. 2015 UK data has shown that the proportion of university students who identify themselves as having mental health problems doubled between 2008–09 and 2013–14.

Snowflakes or support?

Statistics like these grab our headlines and lead to a politically polarised response. Some joke about snowflakes, and ask where’s the grit, the stickability, the stiff upper-lip of older generations. Others identify pressure on public services and societal deprivation. They ask, where’s the money and the support for such troubled people? Away from the headlines, however, there is another approach, one which doesn’t so much focus on treatment as prevention and which looks beyond blame to a more long-term hope. And in this model, it is perhaps unsurprising that we find a pathway to the gospel.

In February of this year the then education secretary, Damian Hinds, told a Church of England education conference that character and resilience are as important as academic achievement. A national audit of good practice in schools and youth work is now in process, which describes character as perseverance, self-confidence and the abilities to delay gratification and bounce back from setbacks. Character, the audit says, also includes kindness, generosity, a sense of justice, respect, integrity and humility.

This isn’t rocket science, but it is evidence of a rising awareness of the need for resilience, a resilience which isn’t just a character trait of a few special people, but something which can be taught and learned. We see this interest not just in education, but in employment as well, as resilience becomes a buzzword in HR and training. How different this all is from much we have heard and seen in culture and even in education over the last generation!

The individualistic message of believe in yourself, be yourself, promote yourself, express yourself is only a distant cousin of today’s resilience literature. Does all this indicate that our culture is moving away from the myths of X Factor-style self-actualisation and Love Island self-indulgence? Maybe not just yet, but it is perhaps part and parcel of our society’s renewed interest in virtue (think veganism, environmental activism and the recent drop in drug and alcohol use among young people). And this itself should encourage Christians to step up with the message of grace.

Resilience through the gospel

Kirsten Birkett in her short, excellent survey of resilience literature identifies its emphasis on spirituality. It is striking that factors that make for resilience are noted as forgiveness, values, religion, singing, volunteering, community and optimism, all of which we can find through the church.

In contrast to the much-promoted practice of mindfulness, resilience training teaches people to go out from themselves to others and to seek solutions to difficulties. But we have much more to give and teach than virtue and religion or even spirituality. The mantra ‘I can, I have, I am’, found in the educational resource The Resilience Doughnut which helps children to recognise their own resources in family, community and values, whilst having many benefits, is still without ultimate foundation.

The gospel, in contrast, teaches us that: ‘I can’ because Christ works powerfully in me; ‘I have’ all I need in Christ; ‘I am’ loved and secure in Christ. So this growing interest in resilience should give us confidence in the great pastoral usefulness of the gospel.

Whilst there is a place for specialist psychological intervention in some cases, the good news of Jesus’ love and the everyday practice of His people is good for us and for our needy culture. We should be reluctant to pathologise the problems we see around us, and remember to go first to Him, to remember His promises, to pray, to sing, to serve and to love. This is good medicine!