Growing through Hardship: One Who Grew and One Who Ran.

(If you missed the first two parts of this series, Part 1 is here and Part 2 over here.)

What does it look like to lean into hardship? What’s the difference between a life that endured hardship and one that avoided it?

First, let’s examine a man who had every chance to embrace hardship and grow, but refused. It’s not who you expect.

The Apostle Paul loved Timothy like a son. Timothy traveled and ministered with Paul extensively, but eventually stayed behind in Ephesus to lead the church there.

Timothy possessed incredible gifts for ministry. He was bright, dedicated, and capable.

Yet hardship crippled him because he refused to fight. Timothy was young, far younger than many other leaders of the Ephesian church. Because of this, they resented him. They pushed back against him, making his work difficult. And when they made his life hard, Timothy retreated.

Paul heard of this and wrote to Timothy to encourage him, saying:

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. […] Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.

— 1 Timothy 4:12, 14–15

Timothy coped with hardship by retreating, letting others despise him. It was hard to deal with a church full of people who resented his leadership. Timothy feared their response to him, so Timothy did not challenge them.

Because of this, he neglected to use his spiritual gift. This was a critical gift, given by the Holy Spirit of God through prophecy. As Paul and the council of elders laid hands on Timothy to pray for him and anoint him for this work, the Spirit of God filled Timothy with this gift to enable him to do the hard work of leadership.

And Timothy was too scared to use it, because the challenge was too hard.

Paul encouraged him to break that pattern, saying: Timothy, embrace your hardship and grow! God gave you this gift. God believes in you. I believe in you. This is a challenge you can tackle. So embrace this hardship and grow from it! Practice these things, grow stronger, and when I come I will see your progress and how much you’ve grown.

But Timothy chose to flee hardship. He resented his situation and held back in fear.

Years later, Paul wrote to Timothy again, saying:

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

— 2 Timothy 1:6–7

For the second time, Paul encourages Timothy to embrace his hardship and use the gift God gave him. God gave Timothy a spirit of power, love, and self-control — but Timothy was letting fear control him.

How much could Timothy have accomplished in Ephesus if he had listened? What could he have accomplished by using the supernatural gift God gave him? How strong could Timothy have become?

Timothy had every advantage, yet he held back in fear. He refused to embrace hardship, and so he stayed weak.

In contrast, let’s examine the life of someone who had nothing. Every advantage was taken away from her, yet she chose to embrace hardship. And she shined like the sun.

Annie Johnston Flint became one of the greatest hymn writers of the Christian church. She suffered more pain than most of us will ever be able to imagine. For decades she lay twisted in bed from rhumatoid arthritis. Cancer ate her up. She was incontinent, living with the aid of diapers. Near the end of her life, blindness began to overtake her sight. She had so many boils covering the entire surface of her body that she needed eight pillows to cushion her body in some small measure of comfort.

She wrote some of the most beautiful hymns you’ve ever read. In one entitled “He Giveth More Grace” she wrote this:

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase;
To added affliction He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials His multiplied peace.

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His pow’r has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done;
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His pow’r has no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

It would have been so easy for her to choose to resent God and resent her hardship. She could have followed the path of Job’s wife, who said “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9).

Instead Annie Johnston Flint embraced her hardship. From it she grew tremendously strong.

The worse her affliction became, the stronger she became. At the end of her life, when her body was crippled, devastated, and awash in pain, her spirit shone brighter than the sun.

She knew her God loved her. As her trials multiplied, He multiplied His grace to her. From her sickbed she ministered to tens of thousands with the beauty of her poetry. And if you felt the power of her words, then she just reached past the grave and ministered to you, as well.

In the face of brutal hardship, the easiest path is retreat and resent. The difficult path is embracing that hardship.

But those who take the difficult path grow strong. And theirs is the strength that shapes the world.