Building Up Spiritual Endurance

Spiritual Endurance in The Wild Robot

The phrase “spiritual endurance” came to me as I was reflecting on two 2024 films this week.

I recently took a group of young families to see the film, “The Wild Robot”, based on a book series written by Peter Brown.  It’s one of those films that’s partly for kids, but mostly for moms as we see a task-oriented robot learn authenticity through loving a child.  One aspect of the film is the robot raising a gosling named Brightbill, and accomplishing the task of teaching him to be a sufficient goose.  When Brightbill tries to join the goose community, he is excluded and treated as an outsider.  He was raised outside of their tradition.

A glimmer of hope appears when a wise goose elder gives the robot mom a word of advice.  If Brightbill is going to successfully migrate with the community (in other words, if he is going to integrate) he needs endurance.

This endurance lesson comes in two forms.  One form is physical training to ensure that he is able to accomplish the migration flight.  The other is spiritual, as Brightbill must have enduring faith.  He must maintain faith in himself, despite being deemed unworthy by his community.  He must maintain faith in his “mother”, despite her being deemed unworthy by the community.   He must maintain faith in the community that he is fighting to join, despite being ostracized by them.

Spiritual Endurance in The Young Woman and the Sea

After seeing “The Wild Robot”, I went home and spent the evening babysitting two of my nieces.  They wanted to show me a movie that they had seen recently, “The Young Woman and the Sea”.  This is a true story about the first woman to swim the English Channel.

In this film, Trudy Ederle loves the sea.  She fights for the opportunity to learn how to swim during a time when women’s participation in sports was criticized and limited.  Her desire to swim was met with discrimination.  She must prove herself constantly: to her father, to her coaches, to the swimming association officials.  She fails many times.  Due to poor coaching and sabotage, she fails to win at the Olympics and fails at her first attempt to swim the channel.

A glimmer of hope appears when a wise swimmer (who successfully swam the channel) befriends her.  With his help and encouragement, she tries again despite being written off by as a failure.  She needs serious endurance.

Her endurance lesson comes in two forms.  One form is the physical training to ensure that she can accomplish the distance and overcome the obstacles of the swim itself.  The other is spiritual, as Trudy must have enduring faith.  She must have faith in her calling, despite being deemed unworthy as a swimmer.  She must have faith in her identity, despite being deemed unworthy as a woman.  She must have faith in community despite being rejected by community, because she cannot fulfill her calling alone.

Spiritual Endurance in the Church

It is no small choice to intentionally be a part of a worshiping community.  Especially if you have felt hurt, ostracized, or deemed unworthy by the church.

I have been wounded by the church, many times.  In the kind of way that feels like your legs are being swept out from under you.  I have been accused of being an outsider, like Brightbill.  I have had authorities question my worthiness to be there, like Trudy Ederle.  In the face of resistance, it becomes an even more intentional decision to put roots down again and open your heart to community.

In the midst of this vulnerable work of being in community, there will always be someone who deems others to be outsiders.  There will always be someone within the system for whom tradition and community are a sacred inheritance, because they truly are.  But the process of community building is also sacred, for if our traditions are to be living traditions, then they must live on in the very real human hearts of our very real vulnerable and growing communities.

We in the church must all learn to have endurance.  We need physical endurance to move, and work, and serve in our communities.  We need spiritual endurance to maintain faith in God, in ourselves, and in one another despite our tremendous capacity to wound each other.  We need spiritual endurance to entrust our traditions and communities to  God, even in the midst of change.

Practices for Spiritual Endurance

When we feel weighed down by hardship, particularly in spiritual community, here are some exercises to explore:

1. Asking wondering questions in a safe environment. Could these experiences be opportunities to strengthen the spiritual muscles of our call and our faith?  What kind of self-care is invited at this time?  Are there boundaries that need to be created or strengthened? Who are examples of spiritual endurance from scripture or history that could be companions and witnesses to us?
2. Truth telling. What happens if we tell the whole truth of our story to someone?  What happens if we don’t?
3. Listening Prayers. Time spent relinquishing and releasing control to God, even if for a moment, can free our clenched hands to relax and receive wisdom and care from God.
4. A Quaker Clearness Committee or Group Spiritual Direction.  There are formal formats for coming together with others for the purpose of sharing a personal story or prayer request, and then receiving prayers, responses, or questions from the group regarding where God may be speaking.
5. Widening our horizons. “What really seems to you to matter most? The perfection of God’s mighty symphony, or your own remarkably clever performance of that difficult passage for the 10th violin? And again, if the music unexpectedly requires your entire silence, which takes priority in your feelings? The mystery and beauty of God’s work? Or the snub administered to you? Adoration, widening our horizons, drowning our limited interests in the total interests of Reality, redeems the spiritual life from all religious pettiness and gives it a wonderful richness, meaning, and span.” – Evelyn Underhill

Discernment and Spiritual Endurance

No one should endure abuse or allow toxic systems to go unchecked, and I have walked away from communities because of that.  No community is without the potential for conflict or harm, so the discernment lies in where God is calling you to be.  I am in a season of life where Jesus is reminding me that he is the center of my spiritual life, and that his body is the Church.  To live more fully into my call as a member of that body, I am being taught the lesson of endurance.  This lesson comes in two forms.  It comes as physical endurance to live, and work, and serve in the ministries that have been entrusted to me.  It also comes as spiritual endurance, to receive the struggles of this season as opportunities for strengthening my faith and my call in preparation for a lifelong journey of supporting and strengthening others in vulnerable community.

If you need a safe space to ask wondering questions, or to tell the whole truth your story, please email me at SarahMForti@gmail.com so that I may be a companion and a compassionate witness to your journey and your call.  

To learn about why I have chosen to put my roots down in the Episcopal Church, read my article on Becoming Episcopalian.

To read more posts, visit my column here.  Check out my writing in “Soul Food: Nourishing Essays on Contemplative Living and Leadership”, or listen to me read a portion of my writing for the podcast Read, Pray, Write.