Message given at Durham Friends Meeting, March 8, 2026
Fair warning: it is words that that I have been thinking about, and some of you know how fond I am of words. I have been thinking about how some words help us with spiritual matters, and some are less helpful. I’ve been thinking about useful language for the inward landscape, to draw on the title of one of my favorite Quaker books.[1]
Psalm 117 Praise the Lord, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
2 For great is his steadfast love toward us;
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord! (RSV)
That’s Psalm 117. It is the shortest of the Psalms, and often used as a call to worship. It seems like a good way to begin what I have to say, today.
Here is what is on my mind today: what do these times call us to do? Of course we all have our ordinary lives: work, children, spouses, grocery shopping, laundry. But that’s not what I’m thinking about. I’m thinking about the overwhelming national crisis in which we find ourselves: immigration cruelty; illegal tariffs; Iran and Venezuela and Cuba; election fixing; corruption; politicization of the judicial system; tyranny. I know I’m drifting into political topics, maybe crashing into political topics, but sometimes, we can’t live our ordinary, personal lives without finding ourselves, at every turn, facing political matters. “The personal is the political.” Are you old enough to remember that phrase?[2]
For me it is like being lost in a thick cloud. It’s hard to see; hard to know which direction is forward; hard to know what is mine to do. Unusually hard. I find myself looking for guidance from people and from organizations I trust. How do we face this? What should be our posture in getting through this, or, better, in resisting? Our posture.
I recently picked up an American Friends Service Committee newsletter. It used the word “perseverance” to tie together its initiatives on behalf of justice and peace in these trying times. AFSC is calling itself – and calling us – to persevere. To endure. It calls us to stay the course, to be strong, not to be dismayed or discouraged by the wrecking ball that the current administration is taking to policies and alliances, to principles and values. A few days later the same message came from QUNO – the Quaker United Nations Office.
“Perseverant;” there’s a posture. “Perseverant” is one of those words that came over to English from French after the Norman conquest. Its first uses in English seem to be from the 14th century, and it has Latin roots. To my ear, it’s a bit of an old-fashioned word, one more commonly used a century ago than today. Maybe that’s the point: it’s a call to stick with the course we were on before this crisis, pursuing equality, justice, democracy, rule of law, and peaceful relations among nations.
Just a day or so later I picked up a recent report from the Friends Committee on National Legislation. They used a different word to tie together a host of their initiatives regarding the current crisis: “Resilient.” Resilience means “the act of rebounding or springing back,” or “the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties.” It is a word that comes into English from Latin in the 17th century, but its usage was relatively rare and largely technical until very recently — about 25 years ago. Then it quickly came to be an organizing concept for ecology and the environment, and its use then rapidly widened to comprehend the ability of persons and communities also to bounce back from adversity.
“Perseverant,” “Resilient”: Both words encourage us to be strong. “Perseverance” reminds us this is likely to be a prolonged struggle and urges us to stay the course. “Resilience” reminds us we’re likely to have some setbacks and we’ll need to pick ourselves up and keep going. Still, I think AFSC and FCNL are telling us pretty much the same thing. We need to stand tall, to be strong; we must not be discouraged, we need to bounce back. That is are the guidance we are hearing from them. It is useful guidance I think we can agree: these are rallying words.
Bear with me here. Those two words, “perseverance” and “resilience” took to me to a book I regularly consult when I’m following a spiritual line of thought or a spiritual wondering. It’s a Concordance. A Concordance is a guide to finding words in the Bible, what they are and where. If I want to know where the word “river” shows up in the Bible, for example, or the word “grace,” I can look it up in a Concordance and find all the verses that use that word. I have an old King James Version of the Bible published in the late 19th century, and in the back, it has a Concordance. The granddaddy Concordance is Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. It was first prepared in the 19th century and regularly updated since; it’s a bigger, contemporary, scholarly Concordance.
Of course this is a little tricky. The Bible as we know it was written in Hebrew, in Aramaic (those are the languages of the Jewish Testament) and in Koine Greek (the language of the Christian Testament). But we use the Bible in translation, in English. So every time there’s a new translation, there needs to be a new Concordance. The new version likely translates some of the words differently than earlier ones.
Still with me? Here’s the thing: “perseverance” and “resilience” – those words — do not show up in the Bible, not in any of the translations we are likely to use.[3] The various Concordances don’t contain those words. These words, perseverance and resilience, however useful, are not Biblical words. Is that odd? Are those the words we should be using to find our posture in resisting, in seeking justice?
Put another way: does the Bible have different guidance for us? Are the words it would have us use different? Well, yes, and no, and that’s what’s on my mind today.
There is a phrase in the Bible – it appears dozens (maybe hundreds) of times — that says something akin to what AFSC and FCNL are saying: “Fear not.”
For example, here is Isaiah 41:10: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
Here is Jesus, in Luke 12:32: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
In these passages (and many others) God isn’t saying ‘lie back, do nothing, I’ll take care of it.’ Rather, God is telling us we may have work to do; we may have to put our backs into it, but God will be with us, always. That’s why we do not have to be afraid. “Perseverance” and “Resilience” put the emphasis on what we humans have to do; “Fear not” puts the emphasis on ‘God with us’ as we do what needs doing. It brings God back in. I think that’s an important shift of focus, a different posture. ere is LHere
There is another word that also is used frequently in the Bible that helps us see the same thing. It is the word “steadfast.” Steadfast means “unshakable, resolute; firm and fixed in purpose.” It’s a very old English word. It’s another “strength” word, like perseverant and resilient. Many of the Biblical uses of “steadfast” are in the Old Testament – and many of those occasions are in the Psalms, so they are in Hebrew. The Hebrew word by the way is “hesed.”
But here’s the thing. When “steadfast” shows up in the Bible, it is not to describe what we are like, or what we should be like or what our posture should be. Rather, “steadfast” is used as an assurance of what God is like. And what God is like is strength wrapped around love. The word points to God’s unwavering, loyal, covenant love. There is strength in that. It points to God’s mercy, and kindness; “steadfast” is a combination of love, loyalty, and generosity. Such steadfast love is not passive; it is love in action. It is the strongest force there is.
The Bible assures us that God’s love is steadfast. And it calls us to rise to God’s love with a steadfast faith. Yes, we must be strong – perseverant and resilient. Yes, we must “fear not.” But we need to do this in the embrace of God’s steadfast love – and let that be our guide.
“Steadfast” is used in the short Psalm I read at the beginning: Psalm 117:
2 For great is his steadfast love toward us;
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Having started with the 117th Psalm, let me close with these words from the 130th Psalm:
Psalm 130 …7 O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is plenteous redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel
from all his iniquities. (RSV)
“Steadfast” is a word for the inward landscape. Relying on a steadfast God, let us, too, be steadfast.
[1] Brian Drayton and William P. Taber, Jr., A Language for the Inward Landscape: Spiritual Wisdom from the Quaker Movement (Philadelphia: Tract Association of Friends, 2015).
[2] “Feminist and writer Carol Hanisch’s essay titled ‘The Personal is Political’ appeared in the anthology Notes From the Second Year: Women’s Liberation in 1970, and is often credited with creating the phrase. However, in her introduction to the 2006 republication of the essay, Hanisch wrote that she did not come up with the title. She believed “The Personal Is Political” was selected by the editors of the anthology, Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt, who were both feminists involved with the group New York Radical Feminists. Some feminist scholars have noted that by the time the anthology was published in 1970, “the personal is political” had already become a widely used part of the women’s movement and was not a quote attributable to any one person.” https://www.thoughtco.com/the-personal-is-political-slogan-origin-3528952
[3] Actually, Ephesians 6:18 in the KJV does use “perseverance”: 18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;…”
