A Message from Troy
June 2026
Dear Friend,
Why is it so hard for me to finish well? I’m an amazing starter! I am creative, tenacious, and have always been good at turning ideas into action. Unfortunately, I struggle to carry things through to completion, to stay with them through adversity until the work is finished. I think resilience is the key to overcoming this challenge.
I don’t mean that I simply need to try harder to be more resilient. What I mean is that resilience keeps me engaged in the game rather than shutting down or caving in to overwhelming emotions. The problem comes when my longing for relief becomes stronger than my willingness to exercise resilience.
As we approach the midpoint of the year, I find myself reflecting on the progress of the past six months. The phrase guiding me this year is Intentional Sowing with Diligence and Resilience. God has impressed upon me just how important resilience is in my life. I believe it is the lynchpin of transformation. Jesus assures us, and reality confirms, that we will face trouble and difficulties in life. Resilience plays a significant role in how we make it through tough times.
For most of my life, I thought resilience was about being tough. Resilient people, in my mind, simply pushed harder, endured longer, and refused to quit. While there is some truth to that, I now see resilience as something much deeper. It is the capacity to recover from disruptions to the process of growth and maturity, enabling us to continue facing reality with humility and integrity.
The journey of discipleship, growth, and maturity is difficult, and none of us move through it without disruption. We get discouraged. We fail. We become overwhelmed. We face loss, disappointment, conflict, temptation, and setbacks. Moments like these are where resilience matters most. It is not the absence of failure, struggle, or pain. Resilience is what enables us to re-engage with the process when life knocks us off course.
When I face difficult circumstances or overwhelming emotions, my instinct is to seek relief. I want the anxiety to stop. I want the frustration to go away. I want the uncertainty resolved. I want the disappointment fixed. There is nothing wrong with wanting relief.
Things begin to unravel when my desire for relief becomes greater than my commitment to growth. Before long, I begin negotiating with myself: I deserve this. Just this once. I’ve been carrying a lot. No one understands what I’m going through.
These internal conversations often become permission slips. They allow me to justify attitudes, behaviors, or choices that are inconsistent with who I want to become. I undermine resilience by compromising my values while trying to manage painful emotions.
In those moments, I am no longer facing reality with humility and integrity; I am trying to escape it. I am attempting to manage my emotions apart from the very values and convictions that are supposed to guide my life.
The irony is that our quest for relief creates even greater problems. We betray trust. We experience regret. We reinforce unhealthy patterns. We add shame to an already difficult situation. The original pain was hard enough, but now we have compounded it.
I believe resilience is lost when our desire for safety becomes more important than truth. Think about that for a moment. We sacrifice who we want to be and what we value for momentary comfort. The challenge is not enduring difficult emotions but remaining aligned with truth while experiencing them.
This is why trust is so important. Much of my life has been spent asking God to change circumstances so I could avoid uncomfortable emotions. Even now, I find myself making similar requests more often than I care to admit. I am learning a different kind of prayer. Instead of asking, “God, how can You change these circumstances so I won’t feel this way?” I am learning to ask, “God, how can I rely on Your grace as I face this?”
That shift changes everything. One prayer seeks escape; the other seeks presence. One focuses on relief; the other focuses on trust. So, how can we cultivate greater resilience?
- Identify the Relief You Are Seeking: The next time you find yourself discouraged, anxious, frustrated, or overwhelmed, pause and ask: “What am I looking to escape right now?” The temptation is often less about the behavior and more about the relief we hope it will bring. We want the discomfort to end and the pressure to ease. Awareness is the first step toward resilience. Before we can make a wise choice, we need to identify what we are actually seeking.
- Pay Attention to Your Permission Slips: When emotions run high, listen carefully to the conversations happening in your mind. They may seem reasonable in the moment, but they can become permission slips that lead us to exchange truth for temporary comfort. Ask yourself: “Am I giving myself permission to abandon what I know is true in pursuit of relief?” Resilience grows when we recognize these internal negotiations before they become actions.
- Practice Presence Instead of Escape: Our natural tendency in difficult seasons is to look for a way out. We want God to remove the problem, change the circumstance, or take away the uncomfortable emotions. Yet Jesus made an important promise in John 16:33: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Notice that Jesus does not promise the absence of trouble. He promises His presence and His victory in the midst of it.
The next time you find yourself overwhelmed, resist the urge to immediately fix, numb, avoid, or escape what you are feeling. Instead, pray: “Lord, help me trust Your presence in this moment more than I trust temporary relief.” The goal is not to make the discomfort disappear, but to remain aligned with God’s truth and your values while experiencing it. Resilience grows when we continually return to the work God is doing in, through, and with us.
Grateful…
Troy Haas
Chief Executive Officer
The HopeQuest Ministry Group