Faithfulness in Grief and Grit

Scriptures: Ruth 1 and John 19:26–27

📖 Instructions for Dwelling in the Word

1. Read both scriptures aloud, slowly and intentionally, either alone or with a group.

2. Sit in silence for 1–2 minutes after reading to notice what stands out.

3. Reflect on these questions (you can journal or share):

   • What word, phrase, or image lingered in your spirit?

   • Where do you see grief in these stories? Where do you see grit?

   • How does faithfulness show up—not just in belief, but in action?

4. Read the passage a second time. This time, imagine yourself in the story.

5. Close with the devotional and prayer below, or add your own.

   
   

📜 Scripture Readings (NRSV)

Ruth 1:16–17 But Ruth said,“Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die—there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!”

John 19:26–27

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

🎬 Devotional Reflection: True Grit and Gospel Grit

In the movie True Grit, young Mattie Ross sets out to avenge her father’s death with a determination that defies her age and circumstance. She’s grieving, but she doesn’t wallow—she moves. With a fierce sense of justice and loyalty, she chooses grit, and her unwavering commitment shapes the story’s arc.

Ruth, too, is young and widowed. By all logic, she should return home to safety and familiarity. But instead, she clings to Naomi with a faithfulness that costs her everything. She chooses grief with movement—a forward-facing faith that clings to love even in the ashes.

At the foot of the cross, Mary is grieving too. Her son, her Savior, is dying. Yet even in that moment of sorrow, Jesus entrusts her and the beloved disciple to one another. Faithfulness in grief is not about fixing things—it’s about staying. About choosing love anyway, even when it hurts.

Faithfulness in grief doesn’t mean pretending it doesn’t ache. It means we stay rooted in love. We show up. We carry one another. We walk into the unknown—like Ruth, like Mattie, like Mary—with grit that trusts God to meet us on the road ahead.

🙏 Closing Prayer

God of the grieving and the gritty, You see us in the wilderness of loss and the long roads of loyalty. Teach us to hold fast like Ruth, to stand close like the disciple, To walk with faith when the future is unclear. Give us the kind of grit that is rooted in love, The kind of faithfulness that carries others home. Amen.