KICKSTARTER BOOK LAUNCH:
The Ark of Resilient Living

Read Chapter One

​

A Story for the Ages

“Lamech became the father of a son; he named him Noah.”[1]

Sunday morning rain streaked the windows of LifeConnection Church. The children sat in a semicircle, most of them only half-listening—until Pastor Joel’s voice dropped into something serious.

He read the words slowly.

​

“I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds, and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

​

Silence.

​

“Pastor, I thought God loved everyone.”

​

Emma’s lower lip quivered. She was ten years old and not particularly afraid of difficult questions. Her classmates looked up from the stuffed animals scattered across the floor—props for the day’s lesson—and waited.

​

“Did everyone die?” she pressed. “Even the kittens and pandas and cousins and grandmas?”

​

Pastor Joel softened his voice. “Yes, Emma. It’s a sad story. The people had acted so badly that God had to bring judgment.”

​

“My Grandma died last week.” She said it, the way a child states a terrible fact when adults haven’t yet taught them to hide it. A teacher moved close and offered a quiet hug. A moment later Emma released the tears she’d kept back for days. The Pastor nodded with understanding while the classmates fidgeted with the stuffed animals until a sudden clap of thunder startled everyone and turned the conversation to plans for the stormy day. The teacher brushed Emma’s dark hair and dabbed away the tears.

​

Emma didn’t say much more that morning.

​

From priests in ancient Babylon to children in suburban Bible classes, from desert monks to Hollywood screenwriters, the story of Noah has refused to stay quiet. It is one of humanity’s oldest narratives—complex, unsettling, and oddly beautiful. The scribes who shaped it brought remarkable skills to the page: vivid language, narrative tension, and a theological depth that still provokes questions thousands of years later.

​

Emma’s question is one of them. And it’s not really a child’s question. It’s — only the first one that can change our lives.

​

We need this story from long ago to guide us across a different sea, one of emotional turmoil, political upheaval, and community divisions. We need to learn qualities of resilience that enable a person to recover from hardships or traumatic events which have created distress.[2]  

​

The tale begins with a broken world. The simple rural society of tribes, clans, farmers, and merchants had degenerated into violence. Lawless marauders terrorized the inhabitants of the land. Warlords and chieftains oppressed the people with constant warfare, murdering many, looting their possessions, taking men as slaves, and raping the women. Shamans created mystic rituals and magic in desperate hope of creating security, prosperity, and health. A sense of anger and despair blanketed the struggling people of the land.

​

The clan of Noah stood like a fortress in this sea of suffering. His family was different. Not perfect—the story will make that clear soon enough—but different. He could trace his ancestry back through the mists of time to the beginning of history, faithful to the mighty God, Yahweh.[3] They lived moral lives, made worthy offerings, and passed the stories of faith to each generation. They were united and strong. They resisted the strange idols of other tribes and lived with integrity in dealings among the community. In a culture drowning in chaos, they were anchored.

​

Yahweh watched the people, given the power of mind, choice, and longing for meaning, yet using their freedom to chase power, immorality, and violence. A deep regret filled the loving mind of Yahweh that the great gifts were squandered in evil pursuits. The Divine made a wrenching decision: the people of the land were past the point of redemption.

​

Something had to change. Someone had to carry the world forward to restore the peace, prosperity, and justice Yahweh intended for all.

​

Noah was that someone to undertake a desperate, risky rescue mission to carry the hopes of the world.

Read the story. Questions begin to gather like storm clouds.

​

Would Noah have the skills to survive physically and mentally in this world of danger?

​

Would God be able to guide this man, just as frail as all the others, to save humankind?

​

Would readers like Emma understand a God who struggles like we do?

​

The questions this story raises aren’t only theological. They’re personal. When the crisis isn’t ancient and mythic but immediate and yours—a health crisis, a fractured marriage, a financial collapse, a political moment that feels genuinely unmoored?

​

The tsunami could even be in your soul when the beliefs that seemed secure are shattered. Your capacity to keep holding may be nearing exhaustion as you open these pages.

​

Do I have the resilience to make it through, even muddle through, what may come in the next sunrise?

​

I can’t promise change in the circumstances pressing upon you today. I can promise you are not alone on a journey. Within you are untapped strengths for the next steps waiting to be unleashed by the God who is with you. We can prepare for the challenges by developing the skills of Resilience now.

​

That is what this book is about. Not a lecture on ancient history, though we’ll spend time there. Not a theology textbook, though ideas about God matter more than we sometimes admit. It’s about resilience—what it looked like in a man named Noah, and what it might look like in you.

​

One family faced those storms. On December 9, 1943, Carl Payne boarded a bus for the Army basic training at Camp Ellis, Illinois. His wife, Julie, stood with five-year-old Judy and one-year-old John to give a final kiss and hug goodbye. The war news from around the world had not been good for the Allies in recent months. The Nazi Third Reich held all of Europe in a brutal iron fist, while Japan marched from island to island, conquering the Pacific and enslaving millions in Asia. The small-town newspaper in Neosho, Missouri could not erase the cost of the massive battles and the setbacks the Allies were experiencing.

​

Over nine million American men were in uniform and Carl must join them. What did the young couple feel, watching each other through that bus window? What did they tell themselves to keep going?

​

Whatever it was, it worked. Resilience often does. But it rarely arrives on its own. It is built.

​

This isn’t a study that requires you to check your doubts at the door. Bring them in. The story of Noah is strange and difficult enough that pretending otherwise would be an insult to the text—and to you.

​

I’ll be your captain as we sail with Noah to find the skills of resilience. Our journey will bridge the gap from ancient viewpoints to the modern world with a theology for today. We will apply the truths for all of Scripture to some of the difficult issues facing our society. Whether you take 40 days or four months on your voyage with Noah, may these pages open a door for new insights which promote well-being and spiritual growth.

​

I encourage you to keep a journal to move from these pages to daily living,. This is not mandatory or graded. But it helps. The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote of what it means to live well. Marco Polo published a huge bestseller around 1275 AD about his journey from Italy to China that brought two societies closer. Henry David Thoreau made his journal’s first entry on October 2, 1837, and ultimately wrote two million words that would influence American society for generations.

​

Your journal for these weeks with Noah will probably not be recorded for posterity. That’s okay! But it can make your experience of growth meaningful for years to come. It makes no difference whether you use a spiral notebook from the discount store, an App on your phone, or scribble in the margins of this book. The point is the same: recording your thoughts as you read these pages will bring deeper enjoyment and meaning.

​

Resilience is, by definition, a bouncing back to recover from a negative experience. Start here: What storms have hit your life? What’s still unsettled—something current and much too fresh, or something from long ago that keeps rattling its door in the museum of your mind? Use your first journal entry to remember how stormy experiences have blown across your life.

​

Noah had storms to weather. We will sail with him in these pages.

​

Let’s launch our voyage.

​

[1] Genesis 5:28-29

[2] Chapter 37 details several skills of resilience which aid recovery. An excellent online resource for understanding and developing resilience is provided by Mental Health America on the page “Ten Tools for Resiliency.”

[3] I use Yahweh in this work as the traditional translation of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, YHWH. The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition translates this as “LORD” in respect of Jewish traditions and a more universal name for God. I will use Yahweh, God, and Lord in the various contexts. See Chapter 4 and 5.