In harmony with this month’s Soul Matters theme of resilience, I will continue to preach a series of sermons on this subject.

In honor of Black History Month, this Sunday and next,  I will include in my remarks the stories of African Americans who embody resilience. For example, people like Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglas are some of the most remarkable examples of resilience in human history. They reflect the stories of many other oppressed and marginalized groups up to the present.

I will continue to develop the idea that resilience has specific core characteristics and that these can be understood and developed. The essential qualities of resilience are most clearly seen in stories of people living under very difficult conditions, which are nonetheless able to survive and even thrive.

The first characteristic of resilience I discussed last week was the importance of finding others who can listen with objectivity and compassion, without judgment or the need to ‘fix’ us. This week I will discuss a second essential characteristic of resilience using stories of people who symbolize the meaning of resilience.

I hope you will join me in this exploration of where resilience.