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Your Ark in the Storm: Everyday Practices for Resilient Living

Excerpt from the INTRODUCTION

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I recently spent a few nights away from home. My hotel pillow and I didn’t get along very well. It was made of foam rubber, which returns to its original form no matter how it has been pressed and pushed. Just as I got it comfortably shaped, the pillow would keep me awake by bouncing back to its original shape!

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“How can I bounce back from the hard times?”

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All of us know the hardships we experience produce a barrage of negative emotions that diminish our quality of life.  We must find a way to regain a quality of life that brings joy and satisfaction.

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Your Ark in the Storm: Everyday Practices for Resilient Living offers help after hardships have buffeted you with loss, failure, or suffering that has lingered far too long. In these pages you will find resources from Scripture, psychology, and ethics to enhance the skills of resilience and faith development. You can gain the capacity to bounce back, to navigate with resilience the hard seasons of life, and to launch again your voyage to well-being.

Streams in the Sea of The Ark  

This work blends the streams of Biblical stories, positive psychology, contemporary theology, modern ethical issues, and the struggle of fictional characters to create a flowing river of hope which carries us through our turbulent and troubling times.

Five streams ebb and flow in these chapters.

• The inspired narrative of Noah in Genesis 5:28-10:32 provides the framework for the book.[i] These words had a high purpose in supporting the faith of the Hebrew people during and after the Babylonian Exile. The narrative exists outside of actual historical events as a timeless portrayal of profound truths about God, humanity, and hope. Though Noah and the Flood were not historical in the modern sense, I will treat the epic story as if it occurred to heighten applications for our lives today.

• The idea of resilience is vital for our emotional health. The term describes our capacity to adjust to the changing situations of life. A resilient person can gather inner resources to adapt and meet challenges during stressful, difficult, or threatening episodes. Mental health professionals believe this quality is essential for emotional health in our complex and dynamic world. From Noah’s story, I will highlight several skills which promote resilience. 

With resilience, we are like a foam pillow, able to bounce back to our original shape or to an even better one.

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