Dancing with My Father in Fields of Grace

I got the honor of being a guest blogger on my Uncle's website inourelements.com. Below is my submission:

Today’s promise passage transports me to the late 70s early 80s to the children’s department of Gashes Creek Baptist church. I was always an awkward young girl, never fitting exactly within any group. Not academic enough to be in with the brainiacs, not athletic enough to fit in with the athletes, not quite social enough to fit in with the popular crowd. At Gashes Creek, however, among the tweens, I found acceptance and love from a group of kids that didn’t mind this awkward, slow, tomboyish girl. It was during that time that I first read the book of Ruth. My best Friend Donna and I used to love to write stories. We mostly wrote stories of adventure and romance. I wanted to use these skills to write a play though. I just loved plays. I suppose Ruth got chosen for its brevity. I typed it out, the whole book of Ruth, line by line; stage directions and all. I had not a clue of its meaning but it was a nice story that was easy to put to script. Years later I would hear it quoted again in one of my favorite movies of all time, Fried Green Tomatoes. The character Ruth would send Iggie a letter signaling her that she was ready to leave the abusive relationship she was in with her husband. The message in the letter was cryptic, using the book of Ruth. “Ruth said to Naomi, entreat me not to leave you, wherever you go, I will go. Your people will be my people; My God will be your God.” Iggie came to the rescue and saved Ruth from her destitute circumstances. Years later I found my Iggie or Boaz in a little church of about 30 people, Sweet Fellowship Baptist Church. I was a young adult with broken dreams, I was depressed, I was searching for who I was, I was divorced and at one of the lowest points in my life. I had felt rejected by the church. Again I found myself this awkward young lady with no where to really fit. One morning I stepped into the doors of that little church in Clyde where Rev. Nancy Sehested was the pastor and I immediately was showered with love. In that little place I found refuge, I was given the nourishment I needed to go forward, to heal, and to live.

Such is what Ruth and Naomi found in the field of Boaz. Naomi had previously fled Israel with her family due to lack of food and resources. settled in the Moabite nation where her sons married two Moabite Women, one being Ruth. While there Naomi’s husband and sons all died and she found herself destitute. She remembered the promise of God that widows were to be cared for by their kinsman and she set out on the journey back to Israel. One daughter in law went back to her people, Ruth stayed with Naomi giving those famous words, your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Ruth goes to the fields of Boaz who happened to be her father in law’s kinsman and gleans in the field. This practice of gleaning was to go behind the harvesters picking up what they had picked over or thrown out. Boaz tells the harvesters to keep her safe, He tells them to leave her some good stuff to glean and he tells Ruth that she is welcome in his field and needs not go to any other field. He honors God’s direction to care for the widows. Out of this relationship was born the ancestral line that would bring another kind of kinsman-redeemer---Jesus. In Jesus we find redemption once and for all. In Jesus we find acceptance, radical Love and radical Grace. We are all welcome in God’s field……we need not go anywhere else.

Surviving the Storm

This morning on my way to work, Greg Laurie with New Beginning was preaching a sermon titled “Following Jesus through the Storm” using Matthew 8:23-27, which is the story of Jesus commanding the storm to stop. During his sermon he pointed out that not all storms stop using Joni Erikson Tada as an example. Joni is a paraplegic from a diving accident she had years ago. Recently she has been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Her storm has never stopped but she has had a thriving ministry through it all, speaking and encouraging others. As I listened to him I was reminded of the scripture I read this morning: Acts 27:13-16, The Storm that didn’t stop. It reads as follows:

13 When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. 14 Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island. 15 The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. 16 As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, 17 so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor[a] and let the ship be driven along. 18 We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. 19 On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. 20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.
21 After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. 22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. 23 Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ 25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26 Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”
I then began thinking about my own ongoing storm. I knew going into adopting my son that it was going to be hard. He had more diagnoses at 2 than I will have in a lifetime. I didn’t know however that everyday would there would be storm waters to bear and that life would be lived moment to moment in anticipation of the next blow up or the next set back. I sit here reflecting 13 years later about the most recent set back and about what my life has been for the last 13 years and wonder, just how am I still standing. How have I not drowned. How can I get phone call after phone call and still keep my composure and go on with my day. How am I not in the hospital? This storm does not quit.
In this passage of scripture, despite Paul’s warnings, the sailors acted on their feelings (“obtained what they wanted.”, acted impulsively, “began throwing everything overboard.” And then they gave up, resolved they would die. After days of them going without food Paul intervened again encouraging the sailors and letting them know that they were not going to perish that only the ship would perish. Things can be replaced, life can not. God’s priority is people, not things. (See Proverbs 15:16.) God’s presence was there with the people on that boat, in that storm. He assures Paul that he still has a purpose in mind for him. God gives us promises and He honors those promises. God showed Paul that they would run aground on an island and they would be spared. The storm didn’t end but their lives continued on through the storm.
Back to Greg Laurie’s sermon: He shared that Joni Erikson’s response to her cancer was” God has something big in store, I can’t wait to see what it is.” In her storm she began the same as she had when she found herself paralyzed, finding where she could give God glory in the storm. She began encouraging others who were taking chemo treatments beside her. She took every opportunity she could to present God’s love to whoever she came in contact with.
As I reflect I realize that to survive my storm I must:
1. Not act impulsively on the feeling of the moment.
2. I must resolve not to give up.
3. I must keep God ever in my presence
4. I must use this gift God gave me named David, to encourage and lift up others in similar situations and to point them to Jesus.
5. I must give constant thanksgiving for those who have chosen not to bail off the side of the ship but to travel this journey with me wherever it takes me.

Thanks be to God for the whispers and prodding of this day.