(posts) Romans 5:3-4

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulations worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope

Notes:

Google's AI search overview offers this summary of the verses: "Christians can rejoice in their sufferings because suffering produces perseverance, which in turn produces character, and character produces hope."

How does character produce hope? For that matter, how does experience? Experience producing hope I can sort of see.

Follow-up questions led the AI thing to say that the King James Version (KJV) uses "experience." Another follow-up led to this portion of a longer response: 

"Experience" in 1611 English: While the word "character" might be the most common single word to translate "dokime" today, the KJV translators used "experience" in a way that captured the sense of proven worth and the outcome of enduring trials, which was common in their time. It conveyed the idea that through patiently borne afflictions, a Christian gains a deeper knowledge and assurance of God's faithfulness and their own sincerity. 

 

about resilience

The door leading from our offices into the north-end hallway always slams shut when someone passes through. After conditions in the hothouse finally wilted my ego, the latest slam shook my petals off clean. I paused and considered all the posters on the walls throughout the building. Cautions, reminders, notices, promotions. You become inured, indifferent, then unnoticing, and, finally, illiterate. Those posters distract from what really matters. The time had come to go to the beach.

A three-hour drive and the Atlantic shoves up against the continent. This late in the season, a sandy crowd of mostly mature folks who sit under beach umbrellas and sun hats do crossword puzzles. These people are literate. And none of them test the waters. They already know what I am only just learning: the ocean, reliable and unceasingly self-assured, beats you every time.