A few months ago I went through a nasty breakup. One that I didn’t see coming on any level. In fact, I was planning to marry that boy.
I was left blindsided, broken and unsure that I actually knew what love was.
At the suggestion of my roommate Alisa, I started reading Ruth.
Let me just sidebar here and say that Alisa has been one of the Lord’s biggest blessings to me in this phase of my life. She consistently pushes me to look back to Jesus and is never afraid to say “Kearstin, I don’t think that’s what Jesus would do/say/act upon.” Not to mention that she supports my Starbucks iced coffee habit. She’s a blessing.
The night that I started reading Ruth, Jesus straight up smacked me in the face with some truth.
After studying the first chapter of Ruth, I had to stop and text Alisa (who was a room away going to bed, but millennials, ya know).
That text read something to the effect of “Dude. Ruth isn’t a LOVE STORY. It’s a story about a girl who leaves her country to serve another and through that the Lord blesses her abundantly and provides her with more than she could have ever hoped for or imagined. How dope is that?!”
Growing up in the church, Ruth was always framed as a love story. A story of a girl who waited on the Lord’s timing for her prince charming, a wonderful man of God. Which is absolutely true and absolutely beautiful.
But that night, Jesus showed me that it’s also so much more than that. It’s a story of His provision. A story of His wild heart that is willing to strip us of what we think we need in order to take us on amazing journeys. Journeys that inevitably show us that all we really need is Him.
When Ruth thought everything she wanted was gone, she said yes to adventure. She gave up everything she had, everything she knew, and everything that made her comfortable in life.
She gave it all up to love the one.
She put her head down, worked hard and took care of what she could take care of, leaving the rest up to the Lord.
And in that daring, wild journey, the Lord blessed her with more than she could have hoped for.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be like Ruth. I want to trade what I have, what I know, and my ideas of what I think I need for the truth of knowing He is all I need.
Jesus wants to take us all on a wild adventure in this life.
For me, right now that wild adventure looks a lot like Ruth’s. In less than a year, I’ll leave what I know in the States to love God’s people in 11 countries.
For you, that wild adventure might be finishing school, loving and providing for a family, or starting a business.
Whatever that wild adventure looks like in your life, the Lord wants to bless you in the things that make you uncomfortable.
Don’t be afraid to say yes.
