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Lessons from the LA Fires on Persevering through Pain

Lessons from the LA Fires on Persevering through Pain

Last updated on: January 23, 2025 at 5:00 am by Shaunti Feldhahn

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Lessons from the LA Fires on Persevering through Pain 2025-01-21T12:59:48-04:00 Shaunti Feldhahn

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Like many of you, I have loved ones who are deeply impacted by the Los Angeles fires and the ongoing aftermath. Some close friends live just blocks from the Eaton Fire flashpoint and 90% of their Altadena neighborhood is gone. As of this writing, their house is still there … and so they and their kids are still there, with no water or electrical service, trying to protect their home from constant wind-borne embers, flaring hot spots, and roving looters.

This picture is from their back windows. Most of the neighborhood looks like this.

They know they are among the extremely fortunate few. Still, they too are in pain, getting very little sleep, grieving the loss of a community and way of life, and wondering what tomorrow will bring. Yet here’s what one of them recently posted on social media: “Amid the grief and loss, we are already seeing signs of new sprouts of life. It’s exciting! And terrifying! But we think God has put us here for a mysterious purpose and we are excited to say ‘YES’ along with all of you who want to join us on this journey.”

It honestly made me want to cry. I want to have this kind of perspective … one that perseveres through hard things with grace. I’ll bet you do, too.

Building Perseverance

This leads to an important question: How do we build—and help our kids build—perseverance in the first place? Not just when a physical fire gets out of control, but when our friend group, school life, job, church, health, or marriage feels like it’s burning, too.

This is a key question we are studying in our latest research project on mental health, and it’s WAY too big of a topic to cover fully in a short blog. (It will probably be a whole chapter in our next book!) But in our research interviews, I see three key habits that will get us started.

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