Text: Ruth 1:1–22
Topic: Learning to make the right choices in difficult times

• I've never been one to read romance novels, but lately I've been reading one.
• Believe it or not, it's a book I found in the Bible—the Book of Ruth.
• The setting of Ruth is the Promised Land during the period of the judges.
• This story serves as a ray of light in a sea of darkness, giving us a snapshot of God at work in an ordinary life.
• From the very beginning, the main characters are plunged into tragedy and loss of unusual proportion.
• Elimelech dies, leaving his wife, Naomi, a single mother in a foreign land.
• As a widow, she has no way of providing for herself except through her two sons.
• Her two sons take Moabite wives—Ruth and Orpah—but both sons soon die.
• Naomi is now totally helpless, because there is no social security system or life insurance policy she can fall back on.
• What will she do?

• Sooner or later we all have to deal with loss on some level.
  • Illustration: Gerald Sittser, a professor at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, writes about losing his mother, wife, and daughter in a tragic auto accident:
• Sittser says he discovered that "the experience of loss does not need to be the defining moment of our life … the defining moment can be our response to the loss."
• We do not have the freedom to choose the roles we must play in life, but we can choose how we are going to play the roles that we have been given.
• How do you deal with loss like Naomi's?
• Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah had important choices to make in the face of their loss.
• Each of these women teach us of the choices we have to make to not just survive our losses, but actually grow and deepen through them.
• Naomi decides to return home to the Promised Land; she decides to take that first step we all dread in the wake of loss. Naomi decides to live and to receive again from God.
• We have to do the same thing, whether that is through seeing a Christian counselor, going to church, joining a small group, or simply getting out of bed.
• Whatever it is, God will give you the strength to make the choice that is in the direction of life. 

• The second thing we can learn from these women has to do with their relationship with one another.
• There's something about shared suffering that actually knits our hearts together with other people.
• When Naomi heads off for the Promised Land, Ruth and Orpah leave with her, despite Naomi's request that they not do so.
• Naomi prays, "May the Lord deal kindly with you."
• That word kindly is the Hebrew word hesed, which speaks of God's loyal, steadfast, committed love for his people.
• After Naomi continues to challenge their decision, Orpah decides to return to Moab.
• Ruth did the unexpected and clung to Naomi.
• Ruth's expression of loyal, faithful love to Naomi consists of some of the most beautiful words in the Bible: "Where you go, I will go."
• Ruth is making a permanent break with her past as an expression of her loyalty to God.
• Ruth has learned from Naomi's example to trust God.
• If we're going to survive times of loss and tragedy, we have to learn to have this kind of loyalty and commitment to each other.
• Our tendency in these times is to isolate ourselves, but we need to extend ourselves to each other.
• The church of Jesus Christ ought to be a place where we demonstrate that it is possible to have non-sexual, non-romantic relationships of great depth and commitment (as seen in the Book of Ruth).
• Ruth and Naomi, arm-in-arm, make the treacherous journey across the mountains to the little town of Bethlehem.
• We can only guess the story that Naomi's face told the people of the town.
• She had left with a full life, and now she returns with nothing but a Moabite woman.

• Naomi (whose name means "pleasant") asks that the people call her Mara (which means "bitter").
• We might feel that Naomi was a very unspiritual, unfaithful woman to talk this way, but this was not the first time one of God's people had lodged a complaint.
• God actually appreciates such honesty.
• When you're intimate with someone, it's normal to express all your feelings, even if they are of betrayal.
• Our choice to face and lament the pain, as Naomi does, is necessary before we can actually experience true joy again.
• Naomi believed God was in charge; what she had a hard time seeing was that God was at work in all of these things for her good and blessing.
• Naomi says, "I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty."
• Had Naomi come back empty handed?
• She had a loyal daughter-in-law named Ruth.
• She also had come back at the time of the barley harvest.
• God was providing!

• In the midst of our losses, it is an act of faith to believe God is still at work and his ultimate aim is to bless us.
• If we open our eyes—if we can at least wipe the tears away and look around us—we can begin to think, Maybe there's a blessing in all of this.
• Illustration: We must believe that life is like the tangled threads on the back of a tapestry; flip it over and the mess of colors suddenly make sense.