Pedro wouldn’t let go of his bone. Despite repeated attempts to pry it away, our 10-pound, white and black terrier knew what he wanted and he would not let go. The harder we tried, the tighter he held on, determined not to have it taken away. He was tenacious. A rat terrier acting like a pit bull. Our dog with his bone.
That’s the way I tried to explain tenacity to my 9th grade students. A high frequency word found repeatedly on the Scholastic Aptitude Test or SAT, tenacity is a word they needed to understand.
To hold on to something – persistently and determinedly and firmly –and not let go. My day hadn’t been going so well. Maybe I needed a bit more tenacity myself – spiritual tenacity, that is.
If God had a high frequency list, I think spiritual tenacity would make the cut of qualities helpful for us to understand because they appear frequently in this test of life. Nouns like courage and forgiveness and hope, characteristics of some of the men and women in the Bible who needed these character traits for they had to use them repeatedly on multiple exams in their life. And they were tenacious about using them, too.
Joe is 55 years old and recently lost his job. He has worked at the same company since he graduated from high school, and he is frightened. Weren’t things getting better, not worse? A fine Christian man and a fine employee, economic uncertainties were certainly in his face. Devastated, Joe doesn’t know what to do.
Jenny’s husband is leaving her for a friend. That wasn’t the reason, he said, but she knew otherwise. For fifteen years, she has worked as a mother, wife, cook, accountant, cleaner, and car-pooler, and she’s scared. With a mortgage, three children, and uncertainly about her future income, she doesn’t know what to do. She, too, is devastated.
When she was six-years-old, my niece Mollie walked in the living room, rubbing her eyes and crying that there “were too tears!” Taking the Johnson’s baby shampoo, she had rubbed a large portion in her eyes to see if there really were “no more tears.”
In life, there “are too tears.” No doubt about it. The psalms make that clear. Undoubtedly, in heaven one day, there will be no more tears – no need for mammograms and colonscopies! No need for unemployement or Kleenex! No more uncertainties or desperation or fear. Bad things won’t happen to good people. In the meantime, Pedro’s example is a reminder to hang on to God with everything we’ve got. To hold on with dogged determination. To refuse to be pulled away. To remember the importance of spiritual tenacity during the tough times that test our resolve to stick close to God no matter what.
And to remember that God, too, has a tenacious grip on us.
"For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you" (Isaiah 41:13 NIV).
Spiritual tenacity would definitely make God’s high frequency list.