Faith for Hard Seasons

I Take a Licking, But I Keep on Ticking

What the Bible Says About a Resilient Life, and Where the Ticking Really Comes From

A Teaching by Pastor Nicole Washington

I'm going to tell you something people say to me, not to brag, but because it's the doorway into this whole teaching.

More times than I can count, people have told me I'm the most resilient person they know.

And I'll be honest with you, that means a lot to me. It means more than if somebody called me smart, or talented, or successful. Because resilient isn't a word people hand you for your good days. Resilient is a word people hand you because they watched you get knocked down and get back up. They saw the licking. And they saw that you kept on ticking.

That old saying fits my life. I take a licking, but I keep on ticking.

Now let me tell you what a life of ticking actually looks like, because I don't want you to picture something easy. I got married at twenty-four. I stepped into ministry at twenty-five, and I've been at it for close to forty years. Anybody who's carried ministry that long knows it's not four decades of applause. It's four decades of showing up, of getting your heart broken by people you poured into, of burying folks, of counseling through other people's worst nights, of getting up on days you had nothing left and finding something anyway.

And then, at sixty-one, I was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease, and I've been on dialysis ever since. I'm building a whole ministry and a publishing house from a dialysis chair. Tethered to a machine to stay alive, and still writing, still teaching, still creating, still ticking.

So when I teach on resilience, I'm not reading you a definition. I'm telling you about my life. But here's the thing I most need you to understand, and it's the thing that makes this a teaching and not just a testimony. My resilience was never really mine.

Let Me Tell You Where My Ticking Came From

Because I didn't invent my resilience. I inherited it, and then I found its real source.

I come from a bloodline of survivors. Six documented generations of a Black Southern faith tradition. Women in my line who took a licking this country handed them that I can barely stand to think about, and they kept on ticking anyway. They prayed. They held families together. They passed down a faith that outlived everything that was done to them.

So resilience is in my blood before it was ever in my choices. And I want you to hear that, because some of you think you're not a resilient person, when the truth is you come from people who survived things that should have ended your whole line, and that same strength is in you. You just haven't been squeezed hard enough yet to find out it's there.

But here's what I learned along the way, and it's the heart of this whole teaching. That inherited toughness got me started, but it was not enough to keep me ticking through everything life brought. Willpower runs out. Grit has a bottom. I hit it.

What actually keeps me ticking is not my strength at all. It's God's strength showing up right where mine runs out. My resilience has a source, and the source is not me. And once you understand that, resilience stops being something you have to manufacture, and it becomes something you receive.

So let's go to the Word and find out what really keeps a person ticking.

What Real Resilience Is Made Of

Now I want to take resilience apart and show you what's actually inside it, according to the Bible. Because the world thinks resilience is just being tough. Grit your teeth. Push through. Don't cry. And that's not it at all. Biblical resilience is made of something much deeper and much sturdier than toughness.

It's Made of Deep Roots, Not Hard Bark

The world thinks resilience is about being hard on the outside. Thick skin. Tough bark. But look at how the Bible pictures a person who lasts. Jeremiah 17 says the person who trusts in the Lord is like a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out her roots by the river. And it says she will not fear when heat comes, her leaf will stay green, and in the year of drought she will not be anxious, and she will not stop yielding fruit.

Notice, the resilience of that tree is not in the bark. It's in the roots. It's what's down deep, drawing on a water source underground, that keeps her green when everybody else is drying up in the drought. That's the whole secret. Resilient people are not people with harder bark. They're people with deeper roots.

The question is never, are you tough enough? The question is, how deep do your roots go, and what are they drinking from?

It's Made of God's Strength in Your Weakness

Now here's the one that changed everything for me, and it's the opposite of what the world teaches. The world says resilience is about your strength. The Bible says it's about God's strength showing up in your weakness.

The apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh, something that hurt, something that wouldn't go away no matter how he prayed. Three times he begged God to take it. And God said no. But listen to what God said instead, in Second Corinthians 12:9: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness."

My strength is made perfect in your weakness. That means the place where you are weakest is the exact place God's strength shows up strongest. Not after your weakness. In it. Your weakness isn't the end of your resilience. It's the doorway to God's.

And look at how Paul answered. He said, "Therefore I will glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. When I am weak, then am I strong."

I know this one in a dialysis chair. There are days my body has nothing. And I have learned that those are not the days God is far away. Those are the days His strength is closest, because my weakness finally made room for it. The ticking you see in me is not my heartbeat. On my weakest days, it's His.

It's Made of Hope That's Anchored Somewhere Else

Here's another piece the world misses. Real resilience is not built on your circumstances turning around. It's built on a hope that's anchored somewhere your circumstances can't reach.

Hebrews 6 says we have hope as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and it goes into the very presence of God behind the veil. Think about an anchor. An anchor doesn't stop the storm. The waves still come. The boat still gets tossed. But the anchor is dug into something solid down below, so the storm can move the boat around without carrying it away.

That's biblical resilience. It's not that the storms stop. It's that your hope is anchored into God Himself, so the storms can toss you without sweeping you off. My hope is not anchored in my kidneys. If it were, I'd have been swept away years ago. My hope is anchored behind the veil, in the presence of God, and that anchor has held through every wave.

Romans 5 shows the whole chain. Tribulation works patience, patience works experience, experience works hope, and hope does not disappoint. Look at that. The trouble itself is producing something. Each hard season builds the endurance, and the endurance builds the proven character, and the character builds a hope that will not put you to shame. God is not wasting the licking. He's using it to build the very thing that keeps you ticking.

It's Made of a Joy the Trouble Can't Reach

And here's one more, and it surprises people. Biblical resilience has joy in it. Not fake happiness. Not pretending everything's fine. A deep, stubborn joy that the trouble cannot get to.

James 1 says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. And it says, let patience finish its work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Count it joy, not because the trial is good, but because of what the trial is building in you. There's a joy that comes from knowing you're not being destroyed, you're being developed.

Nehemiah 8:10 says the joy of the Lord is your strength. Read that carefully. It doesn't say your strength produces joy. It says the joy is the strength. The joy comes first, and the joy is the very thing that holds you up.

That's why you'll meet people who've been through unspeakable things and they still have a light in them. It's not that they're in denial. It's that they found a joy way down underneath the pain, a joy anchored in God, and that joy became their strength. I have laughed in that dialysis chair. Really laughed. Because the joy of the Lord doesn't wait for the trouble to leave. It shows up right in the middle of it, and it holds you up.

How to Keep on Ticking

So let's get practical. How do you actually live this? How do you become the kind of person who takes a licking and keeps on ticking? Let me give you what I've learned, straight from the Word and straight from the chair.

Stay Rooted, Every Day

You don't grow deep roots in the middle of the storm. You grow them before the storm, in the quiet, ordinary days, so they're already deep when the heat comes. Don't wait for the crisis to send your roots down. Send them down now. Psalm 1.

Psalm 1:3

Lean, Don't Grit

When the hard thing comes, your instinct is going to be to grit your teeth and rely on your own strength. And I'm telling you, that strength will run out. Mine did. Instead of gritting, learn to lean. Proverbs 3:5-6. Leaning is exactly where God's strength gets made perfect. Isaiah 40:31.

Isaiah 40:31

Remember What God Brought You Through

When David faced Goliath, he remembered the lion and the bear. The Lord who delivered me then will deliver me now. Look back. You have already survived things you thought would kill you. That's a track record. That's God. 1 Samuel 17:34-37.

1 Samuel 7:12

Don't Tick Alone

You were never meant to be resilient by yourself. Ecclesiastes 4 says two are better than one — if one falls, the other lifts him up. Moses needed Aaron and Hur to hold up his tired arms. Don't isolate. Let somebody hold your arms up when they're too tired to stay up on their own.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

So Keep on Ticking

If people call you resilient, take it as the high compliment it is. It means they watched you take a licking and keep on ticking. But never forget where the ticking really comes from.

It's not your hard bark. It's your deep roots, down in the river of God. It's not your strength. It's God's strength, made perfect in your weakness. It's not your circumstances turning around. It's a hope anchored behind the veil, where no storm can reach it. And it's not gritted teeth. It's a joy way down underneath the pain that becomes your very strength.

I come from survivors, and their strength is in my blood. But what actually keeps me ticking in a dialysis chair is not their grit and it's not mine. It's God. His strength shows up strongest exactly where I am weakest, and He has never once let me get swept away.

So whatever's lickin' on you right now, hear me. You come from a God who specializes in bringing people through. Send your roots down deep. Lean, don't grit. Remember what He's already carried you through. And don't try to do it alone.

You're going to keep on ticking. Not because you're strong enough. Because He is. And His strength is made perfect right there in your weakness.

Take the licking to Him. And let Him keep you ticking.

For Your Study

Open Your Bible

Jeremiah 17:7-8The one who trusts the Lord is a tree by the water, green in the drought.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10My strength is made perfect in weakness. When I am weak, then I am strong.

Hebrews 6:19Hope as an anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast, behind the veil.

Romans 5:3-5Tribulation works patience, patience experience, experience hope; hope does not disappoint.

James 1:2-4Count it all joy; the testing of your faith produces patience.

Isaiah 40:29-31They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

1 Samuel 17:34-37David remembered the lion and the bear before he faced Goliath.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10Two are better than one; if one falls, the other lifts him up.

Questions to Talk Through

Has anyone ever called you resilient? What had they watched you come through?
The teaching says resilience is deep roots, not hard bark. What are your roots drinking from right now?
God said His strength is made perfect in weakness. Is that hard for you to believe? Where do you most need it to be true?
Hope is an anchor behind the veil. What have you been anchoring your hope to that a storm could actually reach?
James says count it joy, because of what the trial is building. Can you look back and see something hard that built something good in you?
David remembered the lion and the bear. What has God already brought you through that you can stand on today?
Who holds your arms up when you're too tired? Who do you hold up? Are you trying to be resilient alone?

A Prayer

Father, thank You that I don't have to manufacture my own strength.

Thank You for the survivors I come from, and for the faith they passed down. But most of all, thank You that the real ticking in me has always been You.

Sink my roots down deep into You, the river that never runs dry, so I stay green even in the drought.

Where I am weak, be my strength. I stop gritting my teeth and I lean my whole weight on You.

Anchor my hope behind the veil, where no storm can reach it. And give me the joy that becomes my strength, right in the middle of the trouble.

Whatever's lickin' on me, You will keep me ticking. Not because I'm strong enough, but because You are.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Declarations

Say these out loud

◆I take a licking, but by the grace of God, I keep on ticking.

◆My resilience is not hard bark. It's deep roots in the river of God.

◆God's strength is made perfect in my weakness.

◆When I am weak, then I am strong.

◆My hope is anchored behind the veil, where no storm can reach it.

◆The joy of the Lord is my strength.

◆I come from survivors, and the God who carried them carries me.

◆God is not wasting my licking. He's using it to build what keeps me ticking.

◆I will not be swept away. I am rooted, anchored, and held.

This teaching celebrates resilience, but let me say something gently and clearly. Being resilient does not mean you have to carry everything by yourself, and it does not mean you're never allowed to be tired, or to hurt, or to need help. If you are worn down to the bone right now, if the lickings have piled up and you're not sure how much ticking you have left, please don't hide it behind your strength. Reach out to a trusted pastor, a counselor, or someone who loves you. Even the strongest tree was planted by a river it did not create, and even Moses needed someone to hold up his arms. You were never meant to be strong alone.

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