Ruth 1,2; Acts 3

Do you believe in coincidences? Many times in our lives what look like chance encounters end up being life-changing events. There’s an interesting movie entitled, “Sliding Doors”. It has to do with two alternative outcomes depending on whether a woman gets on a train or has to wait for the next one. This simple choice — and the movie plays out both options — shows what happens by just that one tiny choice.

Ruth 2 has an interesting “throw away” line, “3 So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.” The author of this short book treats this chance encounter as a coincidence. Yet, it starts of a chain of events that results in the unbroken lineage in the ancestry of Jesus. What seemed like a chance decision or happenstance ended up being one of the most important events in human history.

Have you had something like this happen in your life? I can see in mine events that seemed unrelated being life-changing and subsequently life changing for millions of people. Not because of my choices, but because of what God has done in the circumstances of my life. Look back over the history of your life. Can you find at least one of these sliding door moments that has changed your path or those of others that has made an eternal difference in God’s kingdom?

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Ruth 1; Acts 26; Jer. 36, 45; Ps. 9

Aspiring to a higher standard isn’t always easy…

“Things are far more bitter for me than for you.” Ruth 1:13

As I continue to read through the Bible, the common theme in many of the stories is the amazingly strong faith that is portrayed. When I read this chapter in Ruth, it reminded me of the story of Horatio Spafford, who, in the midst of dealing with unimaginable tragedy at the loss of all his children, one to pneumonia, and four to an accident at sea, he penned the words to the song ‘It is Well with My Soul.’ Spafford demonstrated in action his amazing faith in God, that we are to trust that He is in control.

In this first chapter of Ruth, it is intriguing to note that the book begins as Naomi’s story, with Ruth’s mother-in-law as the main character. Naomi was faced with losing her husband and two sons, leaving her a widow with no support, typically resulting in financial ruin. As readers, we’re left with trying to imagine the pain she must have been experiencing and the bleak future before her.

As humans, we don’t like pain… directly, as in when we, ourselves, are going through something difficult, or indirectly, when we witness others experiencing pain. The pain we experience directly, however, isn’t typically a personal choice, but indirect pain typically has choice attached to it. Is our decision not to engage in someone else’s hurt because it will ruin our otherwise pain-free life at the time? Or is it based on fear, that if we engage with those who are dealing directly with pain, we’ll get pulled into something we don’t have the ability to tactfully back away from if the circumstances get to be too much?

Ruth, however, modeled for us a different approach to struggle… a path based on a higher standard.  Instead of shying away from Naomi’s sorrow, she aligned herself with it, all while dealing with her own grief of widowhood. She chose the way of pain out of loyalty for her husband’s mother, picking a difficult future for herself because her life was about more than herself. She understood and practiced what it means to live for others.

I would suspect that for most of us, it is difficult to comprehend the sacrifices Ruth made. Imagine a similar situation happening today… knowing that someone experienced a significant loss, air travel has made it possible to get on a plane and travel to just about any location worldwide. Our finances aren’t limited by gender or marital status as they once were during the time of the Old Testament. Ruth really did give up everything to help Naomi, and God blessed her with a second family and the honor of being an ancestor of Jesus.

Today will bring choices of whether to care deeply for others going through hard times. Are we willing to invest ourselves in someone else’s pain? Consider the rewards God has in store for those who make the sacrifices of loyalty and love.

Heavenly Father… sometimes showing loyalty seems costly, especially when it requires taking on someone else’s pain and feeling that pain as if it were mine. But, Father, Your way isn’t always easy… help me to choose right over easy, even though the reasons may not be clear at the time. Amen!

Greg (gstefanelli)

Ruth 3 & 4, Acts 38, Jeremiah 28, & Luke 7

Ruth: For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich.

Acts: And the natives showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold.

Jeremiah 38: Please put these old clothes and rags under your armpits, under the ropes.  So they pulled Jeremiah up with ropes and lifted him out of the dungeon.

Luke 7: …she washed my feet with her tears

The Wizard of Oz told the Tin Man: “Back where I come from there are men who do nothing all day but good deeds. They are called phila… er, phila… er, yes, er, Good Deed Doers.”  It seems the Scriptures are filled with stories of good deed doers – there are the unnamed who show hospitality to strangers, foreigners who show mercy to their enemies, defenders who rise up to protect the weak, and even women of ill repute who use their only resource, their own tears and hair, to bathe One condemned.

These are vignettes of God’s love for His children.  I don’t always feel that love; I sometimes stay ‘up in my head’ with my thoughts, worries, frustrations, and seemingly unsolvable problems.  desperation sends me spiraling. I’m in the mire, like Jeremiah stuck in the king’s dungeon with only strands of hope – too afraid to believe.  Or maybe I am just confronting my sinful self, believing that I cannot hope for rescue from the decisions that catapulted me headlong into this pit.

How many times will God forgive my faithlessness and my performance based understanding? Why would He, and hope beyond hope, when will He move in my favor? Will I recognize the life boat?  Will I take the hand offered to pull me up out of the mire?  Will I change direction when the signs clearly point away from the path I am on?  If the answer is “No,” to these questions, then I will have lost my testimony of needing my Savior which leaves me with nothing to give to another.  I always want to be the giver. I do not want to be the recipient.  To be a good deed doer, however, one must also know how to receive from others this love of God.  Therefore, I can accept the hardships as opportunities of how to rely on God so that I can humbly give to others what I humbly have received.

Janet