A Light in the Window

A Light in the Window

Susan Hoyle, pastor Trinity United Methodist Church

True Grit was a John Wayne movie that came out in 1969.  The second True Grit movie came out in December with Jeff Bridges.  It’s a move about Mattie Ross, a 13-year-old girl, who seeks justice for the murder of her father.  She leaves everything she knows, including her home, her mother and little brother, in search of justice.  She knows she can’t do it alone so she looks for a man with true grit to help her.  She finds Rooster Cogburn, a hard living man with a patch over his eye who always gets his man.  She tells him her story and shows him her money and he takes the job.  They begin a journey and find true grit in each other.  So what does this movie have to do with our own Christian journey?  It’s all about true grit.

Let’s look at what true grit means.  It is a firmness of mind or spirit and unyielding courage in the face of hardship.  Words that describe true grit are determination, perseverance, boldness and faith.  We are called as Christ followers to have true grit.  And we learn about true grit from the life of Jesus.  It took determination, perseverance, boldness and faith to do God’s will in His life. 

Through it all, He kept focused on His mission in life.  Even when difficulties occurred, He was determined to do what God wanted Him to do.  He persevered from the beginning of His earthly ministry when people who knew Him said that He was only a carpenter’s son.  How could He know much about God?  Even when His twelve disciples messed up time and time again, He persevered and continued to point the way to God. 

Jesus was bold when He gave a voice to those people who society saw as invisible: the disabled, those who had diseases, the poor, the widows and the orphans.  Jesus never turned away from doing the right thing, even telling the powerful, the rich and those who had influence that they sinned when they did not care for those who needed help.  God’s vision for justice and mercy in the world was the mission of Jesus.  Even more than His determination, perseverance and boldness, Jesus had such faith and it isn’t always easy for us to understand.  Through faith, He left his home and family to do God’s will in a sometimes, hostile world.  Through faith, He showed others that God was filled with love and grace and would never abandon them.  Through faith, Jesus walked all the way to the cross.  Jesus had true grit, a firmness of mind and spirit, unyielding courage in the face of hardship, determination, perseverance, boldness and faith.

Each one of us has a story about our lives that is filled with true grit.  We may have had health problems or an injury.  Perhaps we have relationship difficulties or problems at work.  Addictions may have touched our families and us.  Maybe we aren’t sure how to survive in these difficult economic times.  There may be times when we want to give up, to just stand there and not go forward.  Then we remember the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ and we remember His courage and we hold on.  We remember Romans 8:38-39 and we recite it to ourselves and we write it on our hearts…

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.”  This is the Christian’s true grit Bible passage to get us through those times we want to give up.  We remember that nothing will separate us from the love of God through Jesus…nothing.  Now that’s real true grit…