There is a main road that runs through my town, and on that main road, there is this one specific gutter. 

This summer, a bright green plant grew out of that gutter, tall and straight and gorgeous.

It wasn’t long before a huge red flower bloomed on that leafy green stalk.

It catches my eye every time I drive past. 

To be honest, I get a little choked up every time I see that gutterplant. 

Look at that beautiful thing creeping its way out of a dark, nasty, forsaken place. That curvy, colorful, happy plant, showing us just what’s possible. 

It’s a picture of resilience. 

Resilience, according to Merriam-Webster, is an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.

Do you know people who are resilient like my little gutterplant? 

No matter how bad things get, they make it through. No matter how hard they’re knocked down, they get back up. No matter how dark it gets, they keep on shining. No gripes, no excuses. Sometimes, the people who have been through the most are the loveliest, kindest, most thankful people.

How is that done? 

It’s done through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is a message of resilience. 

In 2 Cor. 4:8-10, Paul describes it like this: 

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; 

we are perplexed, but not in despair;

Persecuted, but not forsaken; 

cast down, but not destroyed;

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, 

that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”

Just as Jesus Christ faced the cross, we face problems of the flesh. Just as Jesus Christ rose from the dead, we also are raised up out of our difficulties.

But we know deep down that we can’t self-help or bootstrap our way out of the gutter. We try our best, and it just isn’t good enough. The sea so great, Lord, my boat so small. 

That’s where the gospel comes in. We can’t do it alone, and the good news is that we don’t have to.

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” says Paul in Phil. 4:13. 

We don’t have to muster up resilience out of thin air. We don’t have to read the right books or watch the right TED Talks to figure out how to be resilient. We rely on God to supply it. And when we do, we attract attention, just like my tall, glossy gutterplant. People look at us and say, “Wow. You don’t see that every day.” 

Going back to 2 Cor. 4, verse 7 explains the ultimate plan of human resilience: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”

No matter how “earthen” you are feeling today, no matter how bad the trouble, how deep the perplexity, how fiery the persecution, may you draw strength from God, who has a storehouse filled with everything you need. May He help you bounce back and stand firm. 

The world is rushing by, keeping a frantic pace, with only a ragged scrap of attention to spare. May you be like my resilient gutterplant, showing the world what’s possible in Christ.

Note: The photo at the top of this article is not the actual gutterplant in my neighborhood. Before I could snap a photo, it got weed-whacked. So sad. But this picture gives you a good idea of what it was like.

This article has undergone ministry review and approval.

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