5 Days with Ruth

Day 1

What I learned from Ruth

There is a small book in the Old Testament after the grand history of the book of Judges. It tells the story of two single women and their difficult travails. That God draws our attention to see seemingly unimportant people is remarkable. Ruth, boy, I can relate to her hard walk from Moab to Bethlehem.  Being a single female, widowed in fact, and childless in a male-dominated culture that valued women only as reproducers, meant that Ruth's value in the eyes of her contemporaries was not great.  All she had was a bitter mother-in-law Naomi. She had left her family, culture, and even her gods. She had attached herself to someone who was embittered and even disconnected from the God of the universe. She was the surrogate life-line of faith and hope for a despondent woman who had in her opinion every right to be bitter. No longer “pleasant,” Naomi wanted to be known as Mara or “bitter.” We are left understanding at times we are called to love ‘bitter people,’ ‘ stuck people,’ and help them walk a path to God when they can’t even have the faith to do so.  Kelly Minter’s devotional on the life of Ruth became my main stay in the weeks before and during my trip to Brazil. She talks about weeping forward; the fact remains, we are all going to weep, but we should try to weep forward into our future, not backwards, into past.

Sometimes, like Naomi, we flee home- we willing leave the place of provision (she left Bethlehem- the house of Bread) for what seems to be better. In a season of trial and famine, it seems we rely on ourselves, rather than God. Minter states, “Escaping to easier terrain is all too tempting when we’re weary in hardship” (Minter 140).  I understand.   Although Galatians 6:9 encourages us not to grow weary in well-doing we for we will reap if we faint not,” frustration, despair, and hopelessness make us want to give up. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but it achieves a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who are trained by it (Hebrews 11:24-26). A choice of venue does not change us.  In essence, we should not be governed by or circumstances but the God of our circumstances. Warren Wiersbs states, “How sad it is when people only hear about God’s blessing, but never experience it, because they are not in the place where God can bless them.”

That’s enough heavy for today.

Signing off,

M.J.