How Endurance Turns Setbacks Into Strength

My pastor said “growth is required– everything that’s healthy grows!” And you know what?! I can’t get that out of my head. Actually, I keep pulling it to the front when it tries to slip away.

While I agree… I also disagree: Physical growth and aging are required but spiritual and emotion growth and maturity are optional. I know I’m not the only one who’s met the old timers and you can’t help but think “Seriously?! Be for real! Are you joking or are you really 60 carrying on like you’re 16?! It’s not an act?!”

Lately I’ve been thinking about how I’ve been in a “transition period”… For yearsss!

“This is the longest transition of my life!”

-me

And now I’m realizing it’s not a period, it’s simply my life. I’m growing and maturing and the changes are beautiful and constant and unending AND I LOVE IT HERE!!! Here, as in wherever I am. Here, as in whichever new place or space or stage I’m in. Here, as in here today, gone somewhere else tomorrow.

Lemme break it down for you (and for me!):

• May 2010: I graduated with my masters in teaching. In 2007 when deciding I wanted to pursue another degree, because I just knew I wouldn’t be working in sales or sales support at 50+, I briefly considered nursing. Emphasis on briefly because I believed I wasn’t smart enough. So I axed nursing and decided on teaching instead. When we let it, our initial doubts lead us to discover other passions and pursue other paths.

• 2010-2011: I worked as an English as a second language high school teacher full-time for one year at a public high school. I loved my students but not some of other things that came along with teaching: What do you mean we can afford a DJ for the honor roll students’ pizza party and not dictionaries for my English as a second language students?! Meeeee?! Breaking up fights?! The MS-13 is heavy in our school (spoiler: issa gang, y’all!)?! What do you mean a school event got so outta hand the year before I began working there and police helicopters were needed to intervene?! I was emotionally and spiritually beaten up by the job and once I couldn’t show up how my students deserved, I left teaching full-time (I was an adjunct at a community college which I loved!).

• 2011-2015: I leveraged my masters in teaching in other ways and worked various jobs, seeking to find what set my soul on fire. First up: I was considering becoming a psychometrician so I worked to develop national standardized assessments for English language leaners. 🤓 I wanted to address the linguistic, cultural and regional biases that exist in standardized assessments. I loved the work but love people far more, and living in Excel all day won’t never gone be it so I peaced out after two years. Then I worked on some really awesome short term contracts with the US Navy SEALs, the Marines and the NSA developing language assessments for when we send our military overseas. Again, I loved the work, but I didn’t envision myself in military-adjacent environments in the long-term. It’s simply not an environment I can be relaxed and comfortable in.

• July 2016:
  • My mom had back surgery and I overnighted with her at the hospital during her recovery on the medical-surgical unit. “Is this what nursing really looks like?! I can most definitely do this!” Of course I knew the same doubts that kept me from nursing school in 2010, but I knew I could do this work after seeing the work itself.

• Also July 2016
  • I like to strike while the iron is hot so a week after my mom’s surgery, I shadowed a nurse friend on a 12 hour overnight shift on a labor and delivery unit and fell in love which was surprising to no one but me. All the nurses in my life and my parents knew I’d be a great nurse because of my disposition, and on this shift I almost began believing them. Ha!
    
    Fun fact: as a child my mom was really concerned with how much I loved watching A Baby Story on TLC as a preteen. I was simply so very fascinated by the human body and I just knew from young I was gonna be an obstetrician. This was the first time I got to see er’thing and to my sweet surprise, I wasn’t phased by any of the blood or the vaginal tears. I finally got to see all the everythings and I so deeply enjoyed it! However, an A in honors chemistry senior year of high school turned into a C- in intro to chemistry my first semester in college and my hopes of becoming an obstetrician were shattered to smithereens. And you know what? It was for the best! What I know now is that I would’ve failed in med school because that ain’t nothing but rote memorization which I haaate. I wanna learn! I wanna understand! And med schools aren’t set up like so like that so rejection = redirection + protection!

• August 2016
  • I began researching nursing programs. Turns out if you already have a bachelor’s degree you can earn a master’s degree in nursing by taking 7 prerequisite aka required courses. I’d already taken one of the seven courses in my so I had to take only 6 courses. A win is a win!
    
    I asked my mom if she thought it was a good idea for me to go back to school. Silly me, but I actually felt old! The program was two years. She made it seem so easy:

What would you rather? Two years pass you by and you have a nursing degree or the same two years pass by and you wish you would’ve started the program two years ago?

My mother

• Fall 2016: I started nursing school prerequisite courses. Oooobviously I started with the easiest– nutrition! I needed to start where I knew I could get an easy win, an easy A. One of the course requirements was keeping a food journal and analyzing our food consumption. 😳 Based on that and the info I learned in that class, a mustard seed of hope was planted that perhaps I could actually live differently. That perhaps, just maybe, I could feel good in my body again.

• 2016-2020: I continued taking prerequisite courses for nursing school. One at a time, little by slow. I saved the most challenging for absolute dead last because mama ain’t raised no fool! 🤣 The residue of the failure from intro to chemistry 15 years prior still lingered. Despite new evidence to the contrary that I’m basically a genius, I still had my doubts. And baby the doubts were heavy and huuuuge! As an adult learner and former teacher though, I know if there’s one things teachers love, it’s close contact with students. Don’t wait until you’re in trouble to say so. No ma’am, no Stan! I let my chemistry professor know from jump about my fears and she coached me through it.
  
  I didn’t sail through the class, or any of my science classes for that matter. That’d make for a super cute story, wouldn’t it?! No baby, nooooooooo! I skruggled!!! Yes, as in struggled! I failed the first few exams in each of my science classes and had to learn how to learn “hard” science. And baby it twas hordt! I was so enamored by the sciences but I genuinely felt like the sciences didn’t love me back. With every new surprising fact, I’d think, and sometimes even call up a loved one and say “Did you know what God did? Lemme tell you about ___!”
  
  The fears were fearing until I cracked the code. One thing about me is I DON’T GIVE UP. What’s one F when you know in the depths of your being you’re very well capable?? It ain’t nothing but a lil redirection. Those failures simply said “Hey baby girl, what you’re doing isn’t working, try something different.” And I kept trying– but most importantly– doing different until I got different results. In each class where I failed the first exams– microbiology, chemistry, and anatomy and physiology I and II– I dug my heals in and still ended up with an A in the class! This would come in handy later.
  
  I am this verse personified:

I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the strong, and neither is bread to the wise nor riches to those of intelligence and understanding nor favor to men of ability; but time and chance overtake them all.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 AMP

As a kid, my mom’s version of this was:

The battle isn’t for the swift or the strong, but those who endure to the end.

My mother

And here I am, years later, living proof that doubt doesn’t get the final say. Growth wasn’t just a requirement—it became my testimony. Every failure was just a redirection, every closed door a nudge toward something greater, something divine.

I didn’t just endure—I became. And I’m still becoming.

Because as much as I used to think I was in a “transition period,” I now know the truth: I’m in a life of divine unfolding. And I love it here.

Here, as in wherever God leads next. Here, as in growing, stretching, evolving. Here, as in right now, today, already equipped for whatever’s ahead.

The Power of Endurance

But let’s talk about enduring. The Bible says:

“The victory isn’t to the swift or the strong, but to those who endure to the end.”

Ecclesiastes 9:11

That word endure in Greek? Hypomenó. It doesn’t just mean to suffer through or barely make it. It means to remain under, to stand firm, to hold out courageously, to stay planted even when the winds rage.

Endurance isn’t passive. It’s active. It’s faith in motion. It’s knowing that even when I was failing chemistry exams, even when I doubted my ability, even when I thought I wasn’t smart enough—God already knew I would make it.

And I did. Not because I was the strongest or the fastest, but because I refused to quit.

If time and chance truly overtake us all, then let me be overtaken by the One who holds them both in His hands. Because the victory? It’s not just for those who run the fastest. It’s for those who keep showing up, step after step, day after day, knowing that endurance is its own kind of strength.

And I have endured.

By grace, through faith, for His glory.

Prayer for Endurance and Divine Redirection

God, grant us the grace, strength, and courage to endure.

When the road is long and the obstacles feel overwhelming, remind us that victory is not for the swift or the strong but for those who remain steadfast in You. When doubt creeps in, let Your truth rise louder. When fear and doubt whisper that we are not enough, let Your promises anchor us in the certainty that we are chosen, equipped, and called for greater.

Teach us to see setbacks as divine redirections, to trust that every closed door is leading us to something better, something aligned with Your perfect plan. May we stand firm in the storms, holding onto faith even when we cannot see the way forward. Strengthen our hearts so that we do not just endure—but become who you created us to be.

Let every struggle refine us, every challenge strengthen us, and every delay remind us that Your timing is divine, perfect, right, and opportune! Give us the courage to keep showing up, step after step, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, and month after tireless month, knowing that endurance is its own kind of victory.

And when we feel weary, remind us: we do not walk alone. You are with us, before us, behind us, and within us. By Your grace, through faith, for Your glory—we will endure. And so it is. It is done. It is well. It is already well done. Amen.