Grit
by Shelly Wyrick

Medical life takes grit. We wrap our minds around MCAT scores, acceptance letters, residency placements and job contracts, knowing it’s not easy. There’s risk in leaving a paying job and moving across the country. And it’s scary. Will you land on your feet? Will you live on this budget? Will you make friends? Regardless, we have hope. We see the endpoint, or the little milestones on the way—the white coat ceremony, the match and the job signing.

So goes our faith. Like medical life, gritty faith requires risk, fear and hope.

Gritty faith takes risks. 
You know you cannot do this on your own, but you’re trying. You want to attend a Bible study but can’t handle the homework. Sign up anyway. You want to memorize the Word, but it’s hard just to remember stamps at the store. Just try. You want to get into a morning prayer routine, but odds are, you’ll fail at developing a daily habit. Find out. We don’t know until we try, so jump in.

Gritty faith takes fear. 
There’s no choosing faith over fear if there’s nothing to fear. I’ve asked God for gritty faith, knowing it’s a bold prayer. I’m requesting the transformation of fear into faith, knowing the stimulator is fear. Gulp. I will be fearful. If the weakness is going to be made strong, I will be weak. The lion taming, fire squelching and sword escapes of Old Testament stories involved lions, fires and swords. Gulp.

Gritty faith takes hope.
Failure’s prequel is hopelessness. Our faith has grit because of the hope set before us, and this hope cannot be shaken because it is the anchor of our soul. Always have hope. Be flagrant with hope. Claim hope over others’ hopelessness because it will not fail, knowing Christ has already been victorious. It is finished. We have an endpoint beyond a white coat ceremony, a job and retirement. We have eternal life with Christ Jesus; this hope cannot fail us.

Medical life, like gritty faith, takes risk, fear and hope. We walk by our spouse’s side, knowing the risks, facing the fear and seeing the hope. We can apply these same principles to our gritty faith by taking risks, choosing faith over fear and anchoring into hope.

Dear Jesus.
Give us gritty faith. Gulp. Work in and through us to develop deep faith, refined by the trials of life. Please help us to shine like a light in the world.
Amen

Shelly Wyrick is wife to her manly medical man and mom to four kids. She has been a physical therapist and stay-at-home mom and has recently added artist and writer to her titles.