•Monday, March 09, 2009
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When I started driving alone, I could only think of one major problem that would hinder my success behind the wheel. I am directionally-challenged. Just ask my dad, who has had to answer several frantic phone calls when I’ve missed my exit on the highway and was being swept along in the traffic current to the next state. Navigation really isn’t my gift.
After a few unfortunate mishaps, I’ve learned to carefully map out every turn before venturing to a new unknown on the streets. MapQuest is my best driving companion, and hastily-written street instructions are constantly being swept out of the car at the end of each expedition. I need to see where I’m going and how I’m going to get there.
If only the rest of life came with such detailed maps! When it comes to dealing with questions about the future, I don’t like twisting turns or confusing road signs. Yet, there is this long life journey that stretches out before me, with several looming questions in its shadows. How do I know if this is the right way to go? Where is this going to lead? What if my future doesn’t turn out the way it should?
One thing that I discovered is that I’m not alone. This pre-life crisis comes to everyone at some point (does it sound familiar to you too?) Then, I discovered this young woman named Ruth. In the middle of my own questions, it was Ruth who taught me something about the providence of God and faith, even when I don’t always know where I’m going.
Meet Ruth: A Daughter of Faith.
The extraordinary story of Ruth begins with tragedy. Her husband was dead, as were her brother-in-law and father-in-law. For a young married woman, it must have seemed like her whole world was crumbling. Her mother-in-law, Naomi, mourning the loss of her husband and sons, was preparing to return to her homeland of Israel. Ruth was facing a decision, and a dark and ominous future filled with many unknowns.
Put yourself in young Ruth’s shoes for a moment.
If a man died in those days, it was customary for his brother or some near relative to take his widow as a wife and raise up children to carry on the family line. Naomi had no more children, and so she entreated her daughters-in-law to stay in their homeland of Moab, marry into a different family, and continue lives over their own. If they chose to stay with Naomi, it would mean leaving their family and nation, and living as a stranger in a foreign land. To make matters worse, Ruth was most likely barren (being married for ten years without any children was very rare in that culture), which made things impossible to carry on the family name, even if she was to get married again.
Following Naomi would mean a life of widowhood, childlessness, and poverty for the rest of her life… as far as she could see. It would have been the bleakest future possible for the young widow.
With that in mind, Ruth’s answer to this life-changing decision is amazing.
“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Ruth was choosing to walk into a future that she didn’t know, hanging only onto her belief. She had found the true God and was now choosing to risk her entire future for Him in faith, with no guarantee that it would be any different than what Naomi had said.
Where am I going?
Looking back, we know the rest of the story. God did not leave Ruth to a meaningless or insignificant life. Instead, He had been plotting for her greatest good all along! He stopped the famine in Israel, and provided food for Ruth and Naomi. He preserved a man named Boaz who would be Ruth’s husband and “kinsman redeemer.” God joined the two together, and out of their family tree would eventually come King David.
God knew what He was doing. And He still does.
Reading this story of Ruth was like a breath of fresh air in the middle of a confusing fog. Often, we must rely on faith in God while the destination is still unknown. We have to make a conscious decision to place our loyalties in God, and desire to follow Him regardless of what the future seems to be. It’s stepping out in faith, trusting that God is who He says He is.
“Faith that is sure of itself is not faith.
Faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.”
– Oswald Chambers
When I started driving alone, I could only think of one major problem that would hinder my success behind the wheel. I am directionally-challenged. Just ask my dad, who has had to answer several frantic phone calls when I’ve missed my exit on the highway and was being swept along in the traffic current to the next state. Navigation really isn’t my gift.
After a few unfortunate mishaps, I’ve learned to carefully map out every turn before venturing to a new unknown on the streets. MapQuest is my best driving companion, and hastily-written street instructions are constantly being swept out of the car at the end of each expedition. I need to see where I’m going and how I’m going to get there.
If only the rest of life came with such detailed maps! When it comes to dealing with questions about the future, I don’t like twisting turns or confusing road signs. Yet, there is this long life journey that stretches out before me, with several looming questions in its shadows. How do I know if this is the right way to go? Where is this going to lead? What if my future doesn’t turn out the way it should?
One thing that I discovered is that I’m not alone. This pre-life crisis comes to everyone at some point (does it sound familiar to you too?) Then, I discovered this young woman named Ruth. In the middle of my own questions, it was Ruth who taught me something about the providence of God and faith, even when I don’t always know where I’m going.
Meet Ruth: A Daughter of Faith.
The extraordinary story of Ruth begins with tragedy. Her husband was dead, as were her brother-in-law and father-in-law. For a young married woman, it must have seemed like her whole world was crumbling. Her mother-in-law, Naomi, mourning the loss of her husband and sons, was preparing to return to her homeland of Israel. Ruth was facing a decision, and a dark and ominous future filled with many unknowns.
Put yourself in young Ruth’s shoes for a moment.
If a man died in those days, it was customary for his brother or some near relative to take his widow as a wife and raise up children to carry on the family line. Naomi had no more children, and so she entreated her daughters-in-law to stay in their homeland of Moab, marry into a different family, and continue lives over their own. If they chose to stay with Naomi, it would mean leaving their family and nation, and living as a stranger in a foreign land. To make matters worse, Ruth was most likely barren (being married for ten years without any children was very rare in that culture), which made things impossible to carry on the family name, even if she was to get married again.
Following Naomi would mean a life of widowhood, childlessness, and poverty for the rest of her life… as far as she could see. It would have been the bleakest future possible for the young widow.
With that in mind, Ruth’s answer to this life-changing decision is amazing.
“Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
Ruth was choosing to walk into a future that she didn’t know, hanging only onto her belief. She had found the true God and was now choosing to risk her entire future for Him in faith, with no guarantee that it would be any different than what Naomi had said.
Where am I going?
Looking back, we know the rest of the story. God did not leave Ruth to a meaningless or insignificant life. Instead, He had been plotting for her greatest good all along! He stopped the famine in Israel, and provided food for Ruth and Naomi. He preserved a man named Boaz who would be Ruth’s husband and “kinsman redeemer.” God joined the two together, and out of their family tree would eventually come King David.
God knew what He was doing. And He still does.
Reading this story of Ruth was like a breath of fresh air in the middle of a confusing fog. Often, we must rely on faith in God while the destination is still unknown. We have to make a conscious decision to place our loyalties in God, and desire to follow Him regardless of what the future seems to be. It’s stepping out in faith, trusting that God is who He says He is.
“Faith that is sure of itself is not faith.
Faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.”
– Oswald Chambers
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