TRUE GRIT

In the 1969 movie True Grit, Mattie, on a mission of "justice" to avenge her father's death, recruits an ornery, one-eyed federal marshal named Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) because he has "true grit", a reputation for the ability to get the job done.  In the end (spoiler alert), they get their man with Mattie showing significant grit of her own.

I was recently reading a review of a book by Paul Stolz called Leadership GRIT: What New Research Reveals, a book that is now on my "wish list."  Stolz begins his book by defining leadership GRIT as "the capacity to get your team, or followers in general, to dig deep and do whatever it takes -- even sacrifice, struggle, and suffer -- to achieve their most worthy goals in the best ways."  I couldn't help but notice the similarity between this definition and the "grit" that Mattie was looking for in Rooster Cogburn.

Stolz identifies four dimensions of GRIT as follows:

• Growth - The propensity to seek and consider new ideas, additional alternatives, different approaches, and fresh perspectives.
• Resilience - The capacity to respond constructively to -- and ideally make good use of -- all kinds of adversity.
• Instinct - The gut-level capacity to pursue the right goals in the right way.
• Tenacity - The degree to which you persist, commit to, stick with, and relentlessly work at whatever you choose.

As I looked at this list, I couldn't help but notice that Christians should be uniquely qualified, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to demonstrate "true GRIT".  We are called to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." (II Peter 3:18)  James calls us to "consider it all joy" when we are faced with adversity.  (James 1:2)  I recall one translation renders this "count trials as friends" because they are producing character in our lives.  The Christian replaces "gut-level capacity" with a reliance on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to direct us to the right goals.  Oswald Chambers defines tenacity as "endurance with the absolute certainty that what we are looking for is going to transpire."  This is Biblical hope, defined by John Piper as "a confident expectation and desire for something good in the future" - referred to by the writer of Hebrews as "the full assurance of hope." (Hebrews 6:11) - the hope that motivated the Apostle Paul to say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

May God give us grace to graduate students with "true grit"! 

NOTE:  See this article which specifically addresses the "resilience" and "tenacity" elements of GRIT.