At a Spiritual Resiliency Luncheon in October, US Army Chaplain (Col) Barbara Sherer, assistant commandant of the US Army Chaplain Center and School, was introduced by Third Infantry Division Commander MajGen Robert “Abe” Abrams to speak on spiritual resiliency.

“Resilience is that ability to come back and spring back to whatever should be normal for you,” she said.

Resilience has been increasingly important in the Army as Soldiers fight in and return from war, seeking to find “normal” when they are no longer in life and death combat.

Chaplain Assistant SSgt Keith Wright explained resilience as

“Resiliency, as studied in the Army, is being able to bounce back from certain setbacks. When you’re faced with hard times, [spiritual resiliency] is how to bounce back spiritually. Whatever your faith or religious background may be, the stress or hard time is combated with that spiritual resilience.”

Despite criticisms, spiritual resilience is not an Army-sponsored religion; it is an acknowledgement that something “outside oneself” is necessary to depend on when in times of struggle.

Some who eschew religion find this weak.  To the rest of the world, its part of being human.