“We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, NRSV).

     Perseverance has a name. Moon. Moon is a humpback whale who recently swam more than 3000 miles from Canada to Hawaii with a broken spine. Researchers suspect the whale was the unfortunate casualty of a large vessel strike.

     Images of Moon’s twisted body were captured as she made the perilous trek. The journey left the whale emaciated and covered in whale lice. Janie Wray, the lead researcher for BC Whales posted the following commentary on Facebook:

      “[Moon] was likely in considerable pain yet she migrated thousands of miles without being able to propel herself

        with her tail. Without the use of her tail, she was literally doing the breaststroke to make that migration.”

Moon’s contorted spine reminds me of an old saying. Scars remind us of where we’ve been but they don’t have to dictate where we are going.

     Paul was a principle example of resilience. He had survived three shipwrecks, five severe floggings, and was robbed countless times. Yet Paul bore witness to a counterintuitive truth. The more the adversity we face, the stronger we can become.

                           Elizabeth Edwards once said:
                           Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can

                           fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put                               together something that’s good.

This is good advice for those who find themselves moving into assisted living after years of living independently. It also speaks a good word to those who face a new normal brought about by a change in health.

     The lesson to note is this‒‒that while life may break our backs, it need not break our spirits. Though we may get beat up, we have no excuse to give up. For the very man who I described above as suffering mightily wrote:   “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37, NIV).

     So friend, while life may not get any easier, the good news is that through the resilient power of Jesus Christ, you can get stronger. Take it from Moon. Crossing the ocean while doing the breaststroke is possible. And once you reach your destination, you’ll have a whale of a story to tell.