Hope in the Calling: Reliance, not Resilience

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”

—2 Corinthians 12:9

Teachers know the weight of expectations, both spoken and unspoken, self-imposed and those imposed upon us. We manage classrooms, emotions, crises, lesson plans, data, meetings, communication, relationships, and physical and spiritual depletion with invisible ease (or, at least we attempt to). There is a pressure to be unshakeable, to bounce back. With good intentions, we even impose these expectations on our students under the guise of "growth mindset" or "grit," strategically fostering and celebrating these qualities through well-planned lessons and carefully crafted curriculum.

We live in a culture that celebrates resilience. It loves the self-starter, idolizes the self-fixer, and promotes the self-solver. The teacher who somehow keeps going long after the tank has run dry. Resilience has become a badge of honor, the silent expectation that we must hold everything together with a steady smile, despite a quietly breaking heart.

But Scripture invites us into something far more honest and far more freeing: reliance.

Paul’s words to the church in Corinth were not written from a posture of strength, but of self-admitted weakness. He pleaded repeatedly to God for relief; God offered grace. Not the kind that merely helps us cope or be more resilient, but the kind that redefines strength altogether. In God’s kingdom, strength is not something we summon or build by digging deeper. It is something we freely receive.

Resilience can exhaust you; reliance restores you. Resilience keeps you striving; reliance keeps you rooted. Resilience demands more; reliance supplies more.

During this season of waiting, God has invited you not to stretch yourself thinner, but to surrender sooner. Take hold of the strength that, for you, is not self-made but grace-given.

Advent reminds us that Jesus did not come to applaud our independence. He came because we are dependent.

Deeply. Disgustingly. Beautifully. Necessarily.

Let your weakness become the place His power rests. Ultimately, our students don't need a perfectly resilient teacher; they need one relying on grace rather than self-sufficiency. Invite God into the places where you feel frayed. Invite others, too: the colleague who notices your exhaustion, the friend who texts at just the right moment, the family member who keeps offering help you’ve been too polite to accept. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is say, “Yes, I could use support.” Resilience is intrinsic, always focused on the self. Reliance is focused on God, who graciously provides others in our lives to support us. Grace often arrives through people He has placed in our lives with kind voices and caring hands. You were not created to carry your load alone. In fact, Scripture insists that you cannot, and that you do not have to.

Strength in the kingdom is born from surrender.

This Advent, let “My grace is sufficient” breathe differently in your heart. Not as a command to be stronger, but as a surrender to the promise that you don’t have to be.

Where Might Grace Meet You Today?

Where are you trying to be resilient when God is inviting you to reliance instead?

A stress that continues to build? A personal weight you’ve been shouldering alone? A classroom struggle that feels overwhelming? A need you’ve been afraid to name out loud? Rely on God's grace, and others He graciously gives you.

Prayer

Lord, teach me the strength of surrender. Strip away my belief in the false power of resilience, that I must hold everything together. Let Your grace meet me in the places I feel weak, tired, or overwhelmed. Help me invite You, and others, into the burdens I carry. Make Your power perfect in my weakness. Amen.