If you read secular takes on what it means to be successful, you are going to encounter the word “grit.” It is the ability to stare adversity in the face and see opportunity. It is thought to be a better predictor of success than intelligence and ability. And it is true that hard work typically beats talent, especially if the talented are lazy.
I’m not sure of my own grittiness, per se. I’ve always had a lot of support from those around me. I was a cheerleader in high school, and I was prone to spouting philosophical platitudes about how winning this regional basketball tournament wouldn’t matter in 100 years. (I was exactly as obnoxious as it sounds.) So I don’t have any stories about how I dug down deep to find the fire within.
Since my generation viewed parenting as a performance art, grit was a hot commodity to cultivate in one’s offspring. Whether we were helicopter- or tiger-parenting (or Growing Kids God’s Way), we were to develop this in our children. We told ourselves it was to fit them for God’s service. But it was also so they could win such a big scholarship that we could tell the FAFSA to go fly a kite.
The Difference Between Biblical Perseverance and Pushing Through
These are not bad things, and they are important traits to have. The Bible talks a lot about this, and the word most commonly used is “perseverance.” Perhaps the most well known verses on perseverance are Romans 5:3-4:
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Now, this is not a verse about winning the big game. This is a verse about how, through the peace of God, we can remain steadfast during the trials of life. God has poured out his love on us. Anything that happens to us on this side of heaven is building God’s character in us.
This is different than the idea of pushing through. We may define pushing through as perseverance, and I don’t think that people who do that are necessarily making a theological statement. But I do think it’s tempting to conflate the idea of digging down deep to create the outcome you want, and persevering through trials as you rest in the knowledge that God has poured all his love out on us through the Holy Spirit.
The biblical idea of perseverance is about understanding the limits of our humanity—and entrusting the outcome to God. The worldly idea of pushing through is about defying the limits of our humanity.
I’m not writing this to be the word police. But sometimes we glamorize working ourselves into exhaustion as if it’s somehow more holy than remembering the limits of our human bodies.
God knows that we are dust (Psalm 103:14). He made us that way.
Why Christians Get Burnout Wrong: When Hustle Looks Holy
As I mentioned before, hustle culture makes pushing through feel virtuous. And it is certainly better than sloth and laziness. We know that these things are sinful. We are instructed in 1 Thessalonians 5:14 to warn the idle.
But while one drop of strychnine might kill you instantly, low doses of toxins will kill you over time. One is eschewing work, which is good and necessary. The second is making your work (or your ministry) your idol and offering your physical limits up as sacrifice.
They often look the same on the surface. You certainly have to dig down deep on day three of the stomach flu. You have to persevere when your quiet evening is interrupted by your teen’s announcement that they don’t understand this algebra unit. You then have to let go of your idea of what the day needs to look like and deal with the issue that God has allowed in your life.
Pushing through is when you say yes to the commitment you know you don’t have time for. Or when you decide to amp up the project—be it school, work, or ministry—not for the joy of doing, but because this accomplishment has become the mirror through which you see your own reflection. And therefore how you have chosen to determine your worth.
Suffering is real, and nobody can avoid it. But self-inflicted exhaustion is not suffering in the biblical sense. It is living out the consequences of pride. It is believing that we can transcend our physical limitations by sheer force of will. It is not wanting to admit to ourselves (and others) that we have limits. It is about celebrating our own superiority rather than accepting that God might meet the needs of others through someone other than us.
What True Biblical Perseverance Looks Like
The word for perseverance in Romans 5:3–4 can also be translated as “patience.” And patience, in its essence, is accepting God’s will for our lives. Sometimes God’s will is a very small thing, like being behind the person in the grocery checkout who has never seen a credit card reader (or been in a school pick-up line). Sometimes it’s a very big thing, like waiting for the provision of the job, spouse, or circumstance that seems to never come.
But whether the trial is traffic or tragedy, it is ultimately accepting that God knows what he is doing, and trusting him in the outcome of all these big and little things.
That mindshift allows us to be faithful in the small things, since we are not looking for the next big mountain to scale. That then opens our minds and hearts to increased service in things that truly matter. It gives us time to listen to the small child that has a big story to share. It gives us margin to help a friend in need.
This may also require us to ask for help. We acknowledge that the Bible instructs us to live in community, but we live through the week like independent agents. Some of us would prefer to drown in than quicksand of trials rather than shouting to a friend for a rope.
And it also allows us to surrender the outcomes. If we allow God to order our days, we can trust him to bring the results he wants.
Sometimes that will bring suffering that is very real. It will bring hardship. It will bring heartbreak. And there will be interruptions to our schedules at times when we would rather have been sleeping. But it won’t mean the added exhaustion of trying to force an outcome.
Finding Hidden Strength in God-Given Limits
I’ve learned a lot of helpful things from secular books on work and business. But as right as it may sound, the Bible does not back up the idea that my success defines my worth. My worth comes from the fact that I was created in the image of God, and therefore created to do his work (Ephesians 2:10). I am doing his work when I keep my home, when I help my patients, and when I am attending that meeting that could have been an email with a good attitude. I am doing his work when I accept that I can’t attend every pharmacist meeting in St. Louis or attempt another board certification, no matter how good it may look on my resume.
You may be doing his work to walk away from a career you love in order to care for a child or parent who needs you. Another woman may be doing his work when she returns to the workforce in order to ensure her family’s financial peace. We are called to trust him in different ways in different times. And sometimes that may involve working when we are tired—with the trust that the much-needed rest will come in his good timing.
But none of these is about mustering up our own success out of nothing. It is resting in God’s provision of work and trusting him with the outcome. It may be a victory that only you and he can see, but it will be no less sweet and joyous for it.
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That’s interesting. The word “grit” must be a mid-western US thing, because it’s not really used in that context much in my Canadian circles. We talk about determination, but grit is more the stuff in your eye first thing in the morning or another way of describing dirt.