Widows and Us

My parents are my heroes. For the past 30 years, they have been involved in equipping and training local pastors around the world. They love their job and they instilled in me a desire to seek only after Christ and to find exactly what I was made to do in this world. My dad recently asked to write a few devotionals for my parent's ministry. Below is the first of several. The thoughts are not different from what I've written on here before but these will be translated into Spanish and I just wanted to have them out (in the world?) in English so that I could as least understand them.

The book of Ruth begins with a tragedy. Famine, death, and barrenness start an unlikely story of two women, Ruth and Naomi, who have lost everything. With no husbands and no sons to provide for them in the middle of a famine, they are left with limited options. They are widows – women God has seemingly afflicted, who will no longer be anything but a burden to those who chose to help them.

Scripture talks a lot about widows and their fate. God gave Israel clear instructions on how to take care of them (Exodus 22:22, De 14:29, 24:17, 26:12). The first recorded disagreement in the New Testament church concerns neglected widows (Acts 6:1). As the church, we are commanded to take care of widows and orphans (James 1:27). The call on us to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves is clear.

But the story of Ruth is about a widow who takes care of others. Through Ruth’s unfailing love and loyalty toward her mother-in-law we see God’s unfailing love and loyalty to His children. Ruth, a foreigner, finds herself as the sole provider for her sorrow-stricken mother-in-law Naomi. With no prospects for her future, Ruth, a barren widow, becomes the unlikely person by whom God chooses to show a great story of His unfailing love.

God loves to use the people we deem unusable for His glory. The people in life we tend to place on the sidelines are the very people God moves to act for His purpose. He uses the weak to reveal His strength.

I’m continually reminded of this truth in my life when I am confronted by my own inadequacies and my own weaknesses. God demonstrates His grace and compassion through broken vessels. People like Ruth and Naomi. People like you and me.

Whether we are poor or rich. Talented or clumsy. From the highest family to no family. The best speaker or the worst.  God loves to use the weak to show His strength. And by His grace, He chooses to use us. Take refuge in Him today and trust that He will use you in your weakness to demonstrate His great power. The very thing that you think may disqualify you from ministry might be the one thing He chooses to use to bring your friends, family, and neighbors closer to Him. Widow, orphan, insecure, poor, untalented people that we are. God’s redemption story has an unlikely place for all of us. 

A Woman of Options

In the book of Ruth, we are confronted at the beginning of the story with two women who have lost it all (or never had it to begin with). They are childless, husband-less, homeless, and stranded without position or power in a world that did not place a high value on barren young women and son-less older women. They return to Bethlehem at the end of chapter 1 because they have run out of options. Naomi has made the trek home a bitter woman, ready to die around familiar surroundings and Ruth (a contingency Naomi had not planned for) seems to have no idea what she has signed up for. By all accounts, these women were destined to live their lives scraping and surviving with very few options for happiness or advancement. 

However, at the very end of Ruth 1, the writer tosses in a line that throws a wrench in what was sure to be a story that began and ended in tragedy.  It reads, "So Naomi returned, accompanied by her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, who came back with her from the region of Moab. (Now they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.)" (NET).

Naomi couldn't yet understand that in the midst of her complete tragedy, God had already set in motion every single piece of the puzzle for her redemption. Ruth, her faithful daughter-in-law will prove to be of more worth than seven sons. The hunger pangs that they feel acutely will be alleviated by the barley harvest that coincidentally was starting. These women of no options served a God of unlimited options. Although Naomi saw herself without hope, God had a plan to provide. Ruth, who came to take shelter under the wings of Yahweh, found abundantly more than a barren young women could have ever dreamed.

I'm reminded of God's boundless reach today. When I question what in the world I am doing with my life, I know that God has unlimited good works for me to accomplish. When I wonder if I have screwed up my life beyond repair, I am comforted by the fact that He has plans for me to prosper and that He remembers me. God is a God of unlimited options and He is not deterred by your situation no matter how bad it may seem. Hide yourself under the wings of Christ and take refuge in his boundless plan for you.

Waiting

I would like to say that I've become good at waiting. In fact, the last year of my life has been nothing but waiting. Waiting for the right ministry position to come, waiting to use the gifts God has given me, waiting to leave my "student life" behind. But last week I whined/prayed, "When will the waiting end? When will I have the job and the life that I long for? When will I stop waiting?" The answer was clear. Not soon.

As Christians, we are taught to wait expectantly for the time when Jesus will come again. The belief that He is coming for His bride is one of the major tenets of our faith and yet at times I find myself reluctant to embrace that belief. I find myself hesitant in being expectant. I want to experience life here on earth. I want to preach and impact people for the Kingdom. I want to get married and have children. I want to see the people I love the most come to know Christ while they still have breath. I struggle with wanting Christ to come back and secretly hoping that He waits a little while longer. I need to get better at waiting. But whether or not I'm waiting for Christ to come back to earth or simply waiting for Him to show me the next steps He has for me in life, I have learned there is no better option than to wait on Him. He is the one who knows best and I look to Him solely for guidance. I wait for Christ and I wouldn't want it any other way.