Don't Put A Period Where A Comma Ought To Be!

The sudden gasp caught in her throat at the surprise of how cold the water was when it splashed on her face and ran down the front of her dress. The anger of the moment gave her the strength she needed to pull the large bucket up and over the lip of the well, before setting it precariously on the wells edge. It wasn't a big deal, but these days, it didn't take a big deal to thrust her into a firey ball of anger. With a fling of her head and the stomp of her foot, she looked like an unbroken, wild horse, snorting it's emotional response. She quickly looked around to see if her neighbors saw her so clumsily soak herself, and so quickly fly into her rage. Lord knows she couldn't let the other women see her like that! After all, there was enough talk about her already. "Who was this gray haired old woman declaring her own name change from Naomi to Mara; from Pleasant to bitter?" "What happened to her after she left town with her husband Elimlech so many years ago, that caused her to return a dried up; bitter shell of the woman she once was?" Oh . . . Naomi heard the talk. She knew the comments, the questions and the judgements. But, surely she didn't deserve this gossip. Hadn't she suffered enough? She left Bethlehem full and came back empty . . . and it was Gods doing, she was sure of it! He brought this calamity on her . . . and for what? Could she have changed the fact that it was her husband's decision to leave town during the drought? Could she help the fact that Elimelech hadn't consulted God first? NO! Elemelech promised her it would only be temporary. Could she have done anything about the fact that he decided to pull up stakes, leaving their home, their friends, and their family behind? Absolutely NOT, and that's what ticked her off the most! Why had God judged her so harshly? She didn't have one thing to do with any of the decisions that were made on her behalf, nor any of the calamities that befell her family! She was all but forced into leaving the "House of Bread," Bethlehem, as it was so appropriately named, this little town nestled in the midst of the "promised land." An, empty house of bread, that is, because of the drought! This bitterness toward God changed her apprearance so much, that her family and friends hardly knew her! Look at the passage from Ruth 1:19-21.

"So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them; and the women said, "Is this Naomi?" She said to them, "Call me no longer Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty; why call me Naomi when the Lord has dealt harshly with me, and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?"

When we "lean on our own understanding" of our situation (Proverbs 3:5-6) It will always cause us to point the finger of WRONG judgement at God! We often make declarations about God's love for us; God's lack of provision for us; or God's inability to keep His promises toward us. It's in these moments of wrestling with the complexities of earth-dwelling, that we begin to size up for ourselves where God has failed us, and fallen short of our expectations. These judgements are seeds planted deep in our heart, that spring up with a harvest of bitterness. Bitterness changes us into defeated, critical and negative whiners! The kind of people who complain because the ice cream is cold!

Naomi's reality was that yes, she had lost her husband and her sons, a tragic loss for her; calamity had indeed befallen her. But God . . . was in the midst of turning her darkness into light; her mourning in joy; and working together all the clamity the enemy meant for her harm, into HIS glory and HER good! (Romans 8:28) Her problem was that she put a period, where God meant there to be a comma in her life. He was not done yet. He was still working on HIS plan for her life. In fact, we know that God used Naomi to bring about a plan in Ruth's life as well, through which God chose to bless her AND us. For is was through her that eventually Jesus Came to us!

This life offers us many opportunities to give up, to lose our faith, to stop trusting God or to just feel alone and empty. Naomi soon found her reason to rejoice once again. And, although her future didn't make her past go away. It didn't make the sting of the loss of her husband and sons magically disappear . . . it did give her purpose and reason to keep on believing and trusting God and in God's amazing, healing time . . . the pain grew less and she was restored to her former "pleasant" self she had once been. . . turning yet again from Mara to Naomi; from bitterness to Pleasant!

Don't Kick The Cover Off!

Her heart was beating like Congo drums in her ears, as she stole away across the fields she had earlier helped glean. The 'thump, thump, thump,' in her gut was mixed with equal amounts of fear and excitement at what she might soon encounter, but it was the possibility of God's promise of future that kept her pushing on as she stumbled over dirt clods and splintery tufts of unharvested barley. But, finally all the preparation of the day; the bathing, the perfuming, the anointing . . . and certainly, the praying, had brought her to this place. For here she stood standing just inside the darkness, but outside the light of the threshing floor. She was able to watch the activity of those on the night shift guarding the barley harvest, without being noticed, like one who was "casing out" her coming reward. She could almost see, and all but touch, the work God was doing on her behalf.

In this place of tension between the "almost" and the "not yet," she had decisions to make. She could press on, sneak in and cover herself with the hem of his garment, or she could allow all the questions about "how can this be any part of God's plan?" make her turn around and run. Did she have the fortitude and faith to press on when the plan now seemed more ridiculous than righteous? Would she even question now in the cold emptiness on the night hours her very relationship with the Almighty? Or, would she take the risk of being wrong, or worse, being rejected by her intended bridegroom?

As for the Biblical story of Ruth; we know she pressed on. She quietly and humbly slipped in and layed patiently under the covering of the bridegroom's hem, awaiting his approval of her actions. The night must have seemed to go on forever. Those minutes ticking away with the beating of her heart, that tick, tick, tick . . . seemed endless. Listen to the text found in Ruth 3:7b-10a:

Then she came stealthily and uncovered his feet, and lay down. At midnight the man was startled, and turned over, and there, lying at his feet as a woman! He said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth, your servant; spread your cloak over your servant for you are next-of-kin." He said, May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter; this last instance of your loyalty is better than the first . . . "

Then, the true test was to come. She was wrong about her facts. Boaz was NOT her next of kin, in fact there was another . . . and even after the risk she had just taken, it could be, that he, not Boaz might become her husband. She had to wait once again in the tension of the "almost," but "not yet." What would her waiting be like? Would she fret over "what in the world is God doing?" Would she resort to questioning God's love for her, His acceptance for her, or if His promises are even true? After all, she had been faithful . . . she took a huge risk and did what she felt called to do, and all for what? Why would God create this mess? Didn't God know the facts? Why this wait? Why this moment? Why not just the reward for faithfulness?

Unfortunately and fortunately, this is a story all God's people can relate to, isn't it? The "almost and the not yet." The "yes, but wait" moments of God. Where we are challenged with laying under the hem of His garment patiently, and without question. But, everything seems to be so big to us. Everything is such a crisis of faith. We don't know how to just lay there with out trying to wiggle out from under the very plan and covering of God, that we've prayed for. Ruth, waited. She had no choice, for she was an unwelcome foreigner, with no resort except to trust God. We too, are unwelcome foreigners in this land and we need to learn how to wait and trust without it being a crisis of our faith. It's a crisis of our faith, because we don't have proper perspective. If we had lived through a drought, the death and only provision of a husband, barrenness, rejection of the community of faith around you, hard, long, hours of field work in order to eat . . . we might look differently at those moments of tension between the "almost" and the "not yet." We might actually view them with potential and excitement rather than discouragement and doubt.

Would it be that we would not kick off the covers that God is working to place over us. Would it be that we would lay still, quiet and patient under the working, invisible hand of God as he prepares the garment of praise with which He desires to cover us.

"Up In The Doom Room"

So here they were, all together in one place. Discouraged, defeated, rejected and hated. Tremendous fear about tomorrow, questions about today, and doubt about what they've been believing, and who they had been following, opressed them heavily like a dark cloud of despair. A cloud ready to burst open, emptying its contents of proof, that what they feared most, had truly come upon them. Those disciples gathered together, after Jesus' crucifixion, pressed into one small room. Did the air of depression threaten to choke them to death like automobile exhust fumes in a closed garage? Did they cry? Or were they so overcome with their reality that they were numb? Were they feeling embarrassed and foolish about having swallowed the teachings of Jesus, "hook, line and sinker?" Those words of "Pick up your cross and follow me." (Mark 8:34) Or, "greater things shall you do, because I go to the father?" (John 14:12) Or, "I am the way, the truth and the life." (John 14:6)

Was their reality, at that moment of being huddled together in their secret "doom room," any differnt than the reality we so often find ourselves? A reality brought about by our life in this oppressive world. A world where we desire with all that is in us, to follow Christ with the impecability that ushers in the assurance of hearing one day, "Well done, though good and faithful servant" (Matthew 25:21) So often. . . more often than we would care to admit, we find ourselves in this kind of despair. We question why we try so hard to serve so faithfully, only to realize our dreams "never" come true . . . at least that is the truth the enemy, our adversary sells us "hook, line and sinker!" In those moments of saddness and depression when we could say to ourselves "why so downcast O my soul?" (Psm. 43:5) do we feel like we almost have our hand on reaching something good, only to find it slip away from us . . . never quite getting a hold on it. It's like God is playing some kind of mean trick on us. Now, isn't that exactly the feeling satan wants us to believe? That God would tease and taunt us with some kind of promise of hope, that is more mirage, than the real deal.

But, the book of Acts, chapter 2 teaches clearly that when those downcast disciples were "all together in one place" no doubt praying, it was a moment that ushered in the very real presence of the Holy Ghost, shaking them out of their words of doubt and fear. It caused them to talk differently! It caused them to look differently! Not only could others merely look at them and see that God was present with them, but their words, their testimony was God filled! Their very articulation and message was different. Changed in a split second from words of doubt to words of faith. It changed their reality from death to life . . . but so much more! It changed the world.

When we come to the end of ourselves long enough to be truly sick to death of our current reality, whatever that may be . . . then, we find ourselves in the perfect place for a miracle! We find ourselves truly calling out to the only one who cares for us like non other. And, the only one who can speak life into death. God loves us beyond what we can even think or imagine and He desires to give His children good gifts.

So, Father in Heaven, I pray right now that you fill my house, ME, with the sound of a violent rushing wind from Heaven. The kind of wind that transforms my testimony; changes the way I look, and pierces my heart into repentance. A turn around from despair, doubt and hopelessness to courage, boldness and faithfullness! Amen!!