November 1
Grit
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ––Galatians 6:9
I love both versions of the film True Grit. The 1969 original starred John Wayne as hard-driving, hard-living Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn, who helps 14-year-old, wise-beyond-her-years Mattie Ross track down the ne’er do well who murdered her father. John Wayne won his first and only Academy Award for the film. The second—and also excellent—version stars Jeff Bridges as Cogburn and Hailee Steinfeld as young Mattie (a performance that launched her stellar career).
What I love about both films—like most great movies—is the growth of the characters and the unexpected twists along the way. While young Mattie goes to Fort Smith in search of a “lawman with true grit” to track down her father’s killer, she passes on seemingly better-suited candidates and ends up choosing drunken, broken-down Rooster Cogburn. But she sees in him what he no longer sees in himself: a man of true grit. Without giving things away, by the end of the film it is young Mattie we admire the most—she’s the one who personifies true grit: strength, courage, and intestinal fortitude.
The Kingdom is built on the backs of the Matties of the world. The unexpected “weaker ones” who rise to the occasion; the “least of these;” the quiet ones who step up, speak out, dig down, and press in. For God’s man, true grit—which means fortitude, tenacity, courage—isn’t measured in quantity as much as it is in quality. Are you using the fruit that you’ve been gifted by the Holy Spirit? Are you exercising your specific gifts in a way that both builds up others and the Kingdom?
Sometimes grit looks like failure in the world’s eyes, or even in our own. When we don’t get the job; when we fail the entrance exam; when we mess up at work and don’t get the promotion; when our behavior at home is less than Christ-like. Failure, of course, is just part of the human condition. Grit is when we get back up. Grit is when we don’t quit; we make it right; eat humble pie and choose the high road. Grit looks like insanity at times—trying for the 100th time after falling down 99 times. Think Edison bird-dogging the light bulb, or Dr. Seuss’s first book being rejected by 27 publishers, or even Einstein, who had severe speech delays as a child and failed an entrance exam to the Zurich Polytechnic School.
But for us followers of the Man from Nazareth, there’s a twist: Oftentimes, true grit means going low, or disappearing rather than grabbing credit, or following God’s path, which may not lead to the things the world values as important. Francis of Assisi had no inkling that he would be remembered all these centuries later not because he came from a wealthy merchant’s family, but because he decided to take a vow of poverty, live off the charity of others, and preach a Gospel that baffled many in his time, and today.
Oftentimes, Kingdom-generated actions of grit are hidden in the shadow of the Cross. Jesus or others get the credit, while we seemingly toil in anonymity. As the prophet Zechariah admonished, don’t despise the day of small beginnings, brother. God sees your actions—the quiet things you do every day, even the “small” ones—a kind word to a child, a word of encouragement to a co-worker, a prayer for the hurting widower. You are not performing for anyone or anything, and you stand before an audience of only One.
Father, sometimes “gritty” is exactly the opposite of how I feel or act. Give me the grace to fully realize that it is You working through me that matters, not me trying to do it on my own.