Today's Heartlift with Janell

355. Letting Go of the Familiar, Part 1

• Janell Rardon • Episode 355

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Stephanie Watson, author and founder of "The Table," shares from her new book, Ruth's Need for a Redeemer: A Bible Study on Loss, Loyalty, and Unexpected Love. 

We linger on Ruth’s crossroads moment: return to what’s familiar, or risk the unknown with God. It’s the same decision we all might face when our Moab feels safe, but our Bethlehem is calling. 

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SPEAKER_01:

I want you, Stephanie, to really help us understand redemption and be able to tell someone what that means. Because that's what you're doing in this work. You're making the Bible very, very real and very uh applicable and encouraging us to be able to talk about this redemption story. So, what is redemption? Say it again, and then tell me more.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes. So redemption is the act or the state of being rescued. And in that itself, in that definition, shows to be rescued means you can't do it on your own. We can never ourselves get to be redeemed. As much as we want to, we want to be renewed, we want to be made new, we are always in our world looking for ways to make ourselves better. We are. But when it comes to redemption, that's God's work on us.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello and welcome to today's Heart Lip with Janelle. I'm Janelle, your host for today's awesome conversation with author Stephanie Watson. She has written a beautiful new Bible study, Ruth's Need for a Redeemer. A study on loss, loyalty, and unexpected love. Keying in on that word unexpected. She writes, redemption isn't a distant concept. It's a reality that meets us in the middle of loss, transition, and everyday struggle. Stephanie lives in Plano, Texas with her husband Matt and their two children. She's been an active member of St. Andrew Methodist Church for 14 years, where God gave Stephanie a passion for women's Bible study. Through her 11 years of participating in and leading with Bible study fellowship, Stephanie brought her love of Bible study to her home church and she started a women's ministry called The Table. This is her new Bible study, and she has two more coming. She is deepening her knowledge and love for the Lord through classes at Dallas Theological Seminary, where she's working towards her Master of Arts in Christian Leadership. Go, Stephanie. We are cheering you on. So today we are going to talk about the word redemption, the beautiful power of redemption, and how redemption really is in God's hands, not ours. Okay, you ready? Grab that cup of something delicious. Here we go. Oh heartlifters, I love luminaries, and we have a luminary with us today. Stephanie, welcome. Thank you for your radiance. You are already shining brightly. I love it so much. Welcome. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03:

It is an honor to get to be here, and I'm excited for our conversation today.

SPEAKER_01:

I bet your smile just makes so many people take a deep breath of peace and relaxation as you move through your day. I think it does. It does. I know it does. I think uh smile is our greatest witness tool, our greatest gift, and is highly underrated in this day and age.

SPEAKER_03:

I am into that.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. I mean, I just love to go about my day and make people smile. So thank you for making me smile. I appreciate that. You are here with us, and I wanted to ask you a few questions about this incredible Bible study, Ruth. I love that you put Ruth's need for a redeemer.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Why did you choose that word? And I'll tell you why it resonates so deeply with me. Why needs? Do we all really need anything? Like, why does she need a redeemer?

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, yes. So one of the things that is really like, I think was an aha moment for me when I studied beginning studying scripture was when I first, you know, was looking at the Bible, I felt like it was very like individual books, you know, that are that are placed within the canon of scripture. And then all of a sudden the Lord just like gave me this aha moment of seeing the grand story all as one, all together. Wow. And yes, and like really seeing from beginning to end that what the Bible is is a gift of it's God's redemption story for us. It's it's our way of coming to scripture to know him and to know how we also fit into his story. And so, so how I see it is scripture, you know, it tells tells the story of God's creation, his good and perfect creation. And then the people that were created, unfortunately, we have this desire to go our own way, don't we? What we think is best, and then and so the fall happens, and then the rest of the story is is God's plan for redemption for his people, for the world, for you and for I. And that's how much he loves us. You know, redemption means an act or the state of being rescued. I was gonna ask you that.

SPEAKER_01:

That was my burning question, yes, to bring this, whoo, bring this big word, yes, this theological term. I want you, Stephanie, to really help us understand redemption and be able to tell someone what that means. Yeah, because that's what you're doing in this work. You're making the Bible very, very real and very applicable, and encouraging us to be able to talk about this redemption story. So, what is redemption? Say it again, okay, and then tell me more.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes. So redemption is the act or the state of being rescued. And in that itself, in that definition, shows to be rescued means you can't do it on your own. We can never ourselves get to be redeemed as much as we want to. We want to be renewed, we want to be made new. We are always in our world looking for ways to make ourselves better. We are, but when it comes to redemption, that's God's work on us.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, Stephanie. Hold on. Yes. I mean, we are a culture of doers. We are. And look at you laughing, because I know that you have probably heard hundreds, if not thousands, of women try to do it on their own.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I am front of the line and would be sitting at your table in Texas if I could, because I'm once again personally in a time where I did try to do it on my own. And you know, you would think in my seventh decade, I would have gotten it by now. But you know, some of us fall hard.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And so I would love for you then to to talk to me more about that. Like what would that look like in my life, in our life, in all of our heartlifters' lives, to be a woman like Ruth? We'll find out out soon. Sorry, I'm giving you lots of stay tuned. But I really don't know, I guess, how to not try and do it on my own. So what does that look like for God to be my redeemer? Is that fair? Is that a good question?

SPEAKER_03:

It is, it is a good question, and it's not one that I think has a simple answer. Fortunately, that's you know, we're always looking for the quick and the easy answer. Give me steps. Yes, step one, two, three, four. I think I think well, so the first the first part of redemption is just recognizing that that's was the whole reason Jesus came, that that was the plan that God set in place from the moment of the first sin, and probably even before. And and he knew that we would need his son. And so it is then picking in, like when you look at scripture, you keep seeing these promises of God coming, the promise to Abraham, then the promise to King David that in his lineage someone would come. And that's what's so cool about Ruth, and we'll talk more about that in a minute. But this the study of Ruth and her need for a redeemer is not just Ruth's story, but it's how Ruth connects God's promises from Abraham to King David, and then all the way to Christ. You do that well in the study, by the way. Yes, yes, thank you. And so it's it's like it's getting to see God's grand narrative and his grand plan, and how little Ruth, the most unexpected of characters, that she recognizes that there's something about Naomi's God, there's something about the God of Israel that is different from anything she has ever known growing up.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay, and that's good.

SPEAKER_03:

That that in itself is our first step of redemption is recognizing that the God of heaven and earth, the God who created us, the God who loves us, the God who sent his son is different than anything else this world can give.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow.

SPEAKER_03:

Take a pause. Take a pause.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, that's a pause. So her need then, she recognized her need when she witnessed Naomi's God and something about Naomi is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. So she probably didn't even know she had a need. Right. I mean, we don't know. You might know because you really studied her.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, I we don't know, but what we what we do know is that I mean, most likely in Moab, that the gods that they were worshiping there were the god of weather, and you know, in the the god of, you know, just the the little things that they need. It was one god here, one god there, was a buffet of gods that they um that they were that they were worshiping in Moab. And so when Naomi's family went there, we don't know the circumstances to to how Ruth married into their family, but but um, but one of the sons chose her and they and married her. And so I think that the women would have spent a lot of time together then.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And what I can what I can picture is is Naomi telling Ruth the promises of God, just as the old testament promises that we know, that would have been what Naomi was talking about every day.

SPEAKER_01:

A historical background for this story, just for your mind and heart to wrap around the history. Ruth's story and life came between these two declarations from God. Scholars estimate Ruth lived around 800, 900 years after Abraham, and 60 to 100 years before King David. Over the 1,000-year time span between these two declarations, God was at work to fulfill the promises he made. He still is at work today.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, until this tragedy occurred in their family, and it's a tragedy that like it is hard to even fathom to where every male in the family ended up dying within a year's time, and um, and then they're left with just the women. And and then it's just a matter of what do we do now? What do we do now? And I think I think that that is um, you know, that that's a big, a big step in all of our redemption stories is when we go through trials, when we go through grief, and we start asking the questions, God, why? Why is this happening? Why are we in this? Where, Lord, where are you in the midst of this? Because this doesn't feel like you.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And it's just, it's those questions that when we come to those times when we know that no matter what, those that know God, those that don't know God, we are all gonna experience trial and grief in this world because we live in a broken world.

SPEAKER_01:

We do. That's right.

SPEAKER_03:

It's it's the it's the question of are you going to trust God in this and or and are you going to seek him even in the midst of the trial? There's there's one verse that I keep remembering from Ruth that is the first time that Boaz speaks to Ruth. And this, you'll well, when you study the book of Ruth, you learn that Boaz is a beautiful picture of redemption. He's a beautiful picture of Jesus in the old testament. And and what the first words that he speaks to Ruth, he says, May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord for the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, read it again. We love repetition.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, may you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Wow. And that word refuge means so much to me because when I have gone through trial, when I have asked the Lord, where are you in this? It's recognizing that no matter what, He is still my refuge. He is still the one that I want to come back to find my security in. Even when everything is full of turmoil around me, it's still the God that I love, that is my savior, that is my redeemer, that when I don't see a good outcome, he is still my refuge. And I think that that is that strand of redemption that we continually need to come back to when the world seems so broken. It's like, okay, Lord, you are my refuge even here, even now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And where maybe we don't see refuge. So refuge could be even intangible. I'm suspecting it's intangible. Like if you would be willing, don't have to paint a picture, perhaps, of what that refuge looks and feels like in your life, in your being. So many of us might know the concept in our mind, in our head, our brain, but making it a reality and coming all the way down that long journey to our heart and then into our being is another story. So what what does it look and feel like to find refuge?

SPEAKER_03:

Right. And I think you know, God uniquely made each and every one of us, and I think our personalities tend to find refuge in different ways. Yeah. But I think some of the ways are for me, it's sometimes just being outside. It's going out in nature and seeing being a part of God's creation, hearing the birds chirp, look at the flowers that are in bloom, look at even like in like a fall season, the leaves turning colors. It that it is just those like little things that is like, look at you, Lord. You are still at work. I love you. Even in the, you know, the leaves in the flowers and the plants and the trees. I love meeting God out in nature and being reminded of if He can care for that one little plant, he can care for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Evoking a strong sense of emotion in me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

When you said, look at you, God. Like just really uh welled up. What if we just adopted that practice today of noticing and and even that exclamation that's that phrase? Look at you, God. Wow. I think that is a tangible way of beginning a practice of understanding refuge. Look at you. Like I opened my door on Saturday morning in my pajamas. Husband was golfing, and I'd had some it was an intense week where I felt some things coming together in the spirit realm. Like wouldn't even be able to tell you, but like a word here or a phrase here, or someone said something in a show I was watching on TV, and I read something, and so I'm journaling, going, I feel like I'm following some breadcrumbs here. So I opened the front door, I just felt led. I'm like, I wonder what it's like outside. I this is not normal. And I opened the door and I looked up at the tree, which is completely bare, and this huge branch is sitting and looking at me like a hawk. And I was like, Well, look at you. So that's why I think that evoked, because you're like, look at you, God. I was like, look at you. Well, I've sat on this porch for decades now. I've never seen a hawk in my tree. And knowing my thoughts before I was awaking in the dream, I was like, Oh, you've got something to say. And I ran and got my camera and it came back because I thought I have to take a picture. I want to know, I didn't know what kind of bird it was initially. So I did my Merlin bird ID and I found out it was a Cooper's hawk. And I was like, Oh, hi there. Look at you. I think I just challenge everyone. Thank you, Stephanie, because I do think that God is waiting for us to just notice. Okay. Thank you for that. So refuge looks different, but you you and I share a common bond, and we've talked a lot about forest bathing on the show and how nature heals us. Anything else that helps create a sense of refuge for you?

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, I think sometimes I need I need to hear someone else pray over me. Oof.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so good.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And and it's in the so in this sense, it's a willingness to ask someone to pray. Yeah. And and I have certain friends that that I know that I can go to. I can even just call them and like, look, this, this, this, and this is happening. Will you pray for me? And we'll just stop on the phone. And we'll do this for each other at different times. And and to hear her voice come over me on the phone and just to pray. And it just washes a sense of peace. Yes. And I'll even and I'll do this with my husband too. There's just days where I'm going to sleep with anxiety or I'm waking up with anxiety. And and I just say, could you just pray over me? And there is something that I pray, I try every morning to get up and to journal. And that's that's a whole nother thing. And but there's there's something that's great in that the repetition of that. But sometimes I need someone else's voice. I need the I need the Lord to be working in someone else, like just their perspective on it almost, and in how they would call out to God for this situation. And it it just brings a peace and a refuge that sometimes we can't get on through our own prayers. We need we need someone else in in that prayer with us. And and so I think that that's another sense of refuge in realizing that we're not alone. I think sometimes when we can ask, be bold enough to ask someone else for prayer, God really comes in and he honors that vulnerability and that willingness to know this is not something you're trying to take up on your own that you're willing to allow other people in.

SPEAKER_01:

Which the key, you said it a a a while back now, because I was gonna come back to it, but we this there's so much here. But you were talking about Naomi and Ruth and the women gathering around the table, probably in that day, and then all these the men being killed and passing. Well, then they were women left, and they're like, What are we going to do? You did not make that singular, it it just flowed out of your passion for gathering women, I think, because you really were just unknowingly said, What are we going to do? And I think the we is key. Yeah, because I'm sure Naomi prayed. If not vocally, orally over them, she was constantly praying over them, I would guess. But the key there is uh what I wrote down the critical aspects of communal learning, and right in the beginning of Ruth's need for a redeemer, you teach on something that is so powerful. I teach online college and I teach the learning pyramid. And so I had not seen it in any Bible study, and I was like, she's teaching the critical aspects of the learning pyramid. Yes. Would you please just give us a little bit? Because this is a charge for everyone listening. If you are isolated, if you are afraid, if you maybe don't go to church right now, wherever you find yourself, we're taping this in the second week of a new year. And so find your people.

SPEAKER_03:

Find your people.

SPEAKER_01:

Find your people. And tell us why that's so critical.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So finding your people, finding a group of women to study with, it's that's a part of my story. I I grew up going to church all of my life. I've always known the Lord, I've always been in a family that we went to church together. We've always been a family of faith, and and I am so grateful that the Lord placed me in a family of faith like that. Yeah. But there was a time in my life, and it wasn't until after college, and I was starting began working that a friend asked me to go to a little book club lunch, and it turned out to be a Bible study is what I love it. We're studying was the Bible. Oh, Baiton Switch. I love it. That's good. And and there is something, and that was just four of us sitting around a table. Wow. Something very, very small. And that just the four of us sitting around a table, talking about scripture, talking about what we each were individually learning, getting to hear the stories that they already knew in scripture. And me just, you know, sitting in church every Sunday, I know I had heard these things, but I just I hadn't grasped them yet. And I hadn't like known them for myself. And they were just this time of this this time of being around this table with this simple small little book club group of women. It was the Holy Spirit came alive in me for the very first time. Love it. Was this in a home? This was no, like in like just like a little like cafeteria type style, like restaurant. I love it. So yes, so not even anything remotely.

SPEAKER_01:

Not a cafe, little coffee shop.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah. It was just like the simplest lunch type of Bible study that it could ever be. There was nothing fancy about it. Love it. Through this, my faith became my own. It wasn't something I did on Sundays anymore. It was something of who I was and to know Jesus for myself, and to know Jesus isn't just my savior who died on the cross. He now he lives in me, and this is an everyday part of me. How old were you? I was 23. How beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

How lovely.

SPEAKER_03:

And in that just started a trajectory for me that that took me through just, I need Bible study. I need it all the time. Like this, this is this I gotta have it. My thing. I've got to have it. I love it. So yes, so Janelle, like you were talking about the learning pyramid, and and I didn't know those this until I was, I had already been teaching women for a long time. And then I'm I was in seminary and in a teaching class, and the professor told me one day that they that that whoever hears me teach only remembers five percent of what I said. And I was like, I was so offended, I was so offended. I was like, that couldn't cannot be true. That is not okay, that cannot be true. I am not pouring all this into them. I'm only remembering five percent. Yes, so but then the more he talked, the more I realized that the model of Bible study allows us to remember so much more. Okay, tell us the the five percent is if you walk in and you start listening to someone and you have no idea what they are going to be talking about. So you haven't been prepped at all before. Yeah, it's all you only walk away remembering five percent of what was taught to you.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, heartlifter, teaching moment, because I know how many leaders we have in this community who do teach. So here's a quick rundown: 5% we retain through lecture, 10% by reading, 20% audio visual, 30% by demonstration, 50% by conversation, mm-hmm, 75% practice doing it, and 90% retention when we teach others. But Stephanie and I took a moment to talk about that 50% of retention that happens in conversation around the table.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, and then there is something that God does that is special through conversation.

SPEAKER_01:

That's it right there. If you don't hear anything else today from this beautiful luminary, Stephanie, because you had been teaching for a while. Yes, yes, and you're I get it because I was teaching a Bible study one time and going on and on and on, and all of a sudden this woman raised her hand, and I can see her face. She was sitting to my left, and she says, I have no idea what you're talking about. None. Yes, I've never read the Bible, I don't know who David is. I just remember going, so you had an aha moment post all these years of teaching.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm so glad you were sitting in that seminary in that class, and bravo to the teacher.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

So that you could then shift because I have no doubt you were going to be teaching many, many, many moons and many, many years, and many, many people. So, how beautiful for God to unveil that to you at a very important time it before you wrote this study, right? Right, right, yes, so that you could actively engage us. And so the key here is conversation. And I really just a huge part of what we do here, Stephanie, is all about community, community, women gathering.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

So well, let's go back to the like how do we find our group? How do we find our community? And and I want to encourage you, just like my first group that I studied, it was just four women around a table.

SPEAKER_01:

And it was an invitation. That to me is an invitation. Someone invited you. It's all God is an invitational God, community is invitational. We have to be invitational people this year. We let's take that challenge. Okay, invite someone to a simple cafeteria, yes, and to a book club.

SPEAKER_03:

Because what Roots need for Redeemer is is a book. And so you are welcome to invite your friends to a really good book.

unknown:

Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

And and just that's what I say all through this is just savor it. Savor the story. Savor the story of Ruth. You're right, it's right in front of me. I love it. Savor the story of Ruth and and enjoy one thing I love about the book of Ruth, it's just that it's a very practical book. There are there are no miracles done in the story of Ruth. There's nothing very profound that is like, well, we never see that happen today. You know, every everything that happens in the story of Ruth, while it's not our culture, it's not the world we live in right now, it is still, it's just the everyday little steps of faith.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And that is one thing that's so beautiful about Ruth, and it makes it so relatable for all of us. It's just what we are all looking to do is Lord, how can I live in faith today? How can I step out in faith? What are you calling me to do so that I can be a provider of joy, a provider of grace, a provider of love to those around me. And that's what Ruth helps us to know and to love. And you see this beautiful picture of redemption, like I've been talking about. Like it's it's not only God's story through all scripture, you just get to see it so evident and so beautifully done here in Ruth. One thing I talk about is that you know, a lot of people see the little four-chapter book of Ruth as just a simple love story.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yet it is so much more than that.

SPEAKER_01:

One of the aspects of Ruth's story, number one, it's so probably was so ordinary. And we now have it in scripture, so it's extraordinary to us. But I think what I have been hearing the spirit say in my own life, tell me if you're maybe hearing this in your circles, in your spheres. I think we all get caught up in wanting to be the extraordinary Ruth who's written about, but really when Ruth was walking her journey, she was ordinary.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Naomi was ordinary. We would now say they are massive influencers, you know. We just live in such an upside-down culture of what is valued as influence. And this is just such a call to understand God, our Redeemer, that we cannot do it on our own. So stop trying to do it on your own. Understand his capacity and his love to want to walk before you, beside you, behind you, and grasp again, and maybe I am just speaking to myself. The power of being an ordinary influence in your spheres that no one might ever know, no one might ever see, no one might ever praise you. But what I feel a spirit wooing in my own life is to find the extraordinary and the ordinary and to be an incredible luminary in my sphere. Is that what you're really inviting us into here in this beautiful story of Ruth?

SPEAKER_03:

Absolutely. It is Ruth never sought out to be an influencer of any kind, all she did was cling. She clung to Naomi, which in in a sense is what what she was doing was she was clinging to God.

SPEAKER_01:

And talk Stephanie, you can't, you just unleashed.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah. I think there's you know, there's there's the picture that's in Ruth chapter, I guess it's yeah, it's Ruth chapter one, that you know, there's this is this is the time that I this is the only time that I really want to be upset with Naomi. Okay, I love yes, yes, because this is when they after, you know, after Naomi's husband has passed away, her two sons, so that's that's also Ruth's husband, all of the men are gone. And and I'm sure Naomi has prayed about okay, now what's next? Well, that this is when her and Naomi, I mean, yes, Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah, they all are going back to Bethlehem. Yeah. Well, Ruth and Orpah, yes, Ruth and Orpah have never been to Bethlehem before. And and so it's this time that Naomi is is this is a huge monumental, like you're on the crux of your faith. Is this this is the moment for for Ruth and Orpah? Is are they going to go to the to the new world, which means are they going to step out in faith and follow God into the unknown? Or are they going to return to what is comfortable and what they already know? But what is comfortable and what they already know is not with God.

SPEAKER_00:

No.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, heartlifter. I am going to stop here because when Stephanie and I were talking and those last few words just took my breath away. And I said, we're going to need to pause and really take this in before we continue. So my hope for you, Heartlifter, is that you will just take a pause two. I'm going to read Ruth one, and I invite you to close your eyes. Of course not if you're driving. And allow your beautiful, divine, baptized imagination to take you back to that dusty road between Moab and Bethlehem. And just notice. Activate your five senses like we do in Lexio Divina. And notice what you are hearing, seeing, sensing. And then listen. We're going to really train our ear this year to listen for the whispers of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Ruth one. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech. His wife's name was Naomi. And the names of his two sons were Malon and Gilean. They were Apaphr okay. They were Apaphrhites from Bethlehem, Judah, and they went to Moab and lived there. Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah, and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Malon and Kileon also died. And Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home to Bethlehem from there. With her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the Lord show you kindness as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband. Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud. And said to her, We will go back with you to your people. But Naomi said, Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons, would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you because the Lord's hand has turned against me. At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye. But Ruth clung to her. Look, said Naomi, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her, Ruth. But Ruth replied, Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me. When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women exclaimed, Can this be Naomi? Don't call me Naomi, she told them. Call me Mara, because the Lord Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me. The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. So Naomi returned from Moab, accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. See yourself on that dusty road from Moab. What is your Moab? What is your Moab? You're looking back, reflecting. Do I want to stay in this space, even though I know that perhaps God is calling me to walk a dusty road and make some hard decisions and move towards Bethlehem? What does Bethlehem represent to you right now? So there on that dusty road, on that journey, between what was comfortable, what was known. Even though even though you don't really feel the presence of God there anymore. Towards a place you know. Bethlehem. You live there. What is your Bethlehem? Maybe it's a job. Maybe it is a certain church, a community, a you fill in the blank. What is the Bethlehem? Perhaps that God is calling you to move towards, to journey towards, on a dusty road filled with uncertainty, fear, anxiety, even. But deep down inside of you, in that knower, that place I call my knower, your knower, you know he's calling you and that he is going to be with you, yet taking that first step might feel really scary. And even the voice, the voice or voices of those you know and love, like Naomi, is saying, go back. Don't don't come with me. Don't move forward, stay. No. Be like Ruth, and know that you know that you know you are to follow God. Naomi represented God to Ruth and all of his promises for her life. So she took a risk and she went to a place, a foreign place she'd never been to Bethlehem. Naomi had, Naomi had a life there, a good life there. And now Ruth is trusting, trusting a woman she loves so much, but trusting the God of that woman even more. What might God be saying to you right now?

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May you listen and may you heed, and may you follow. Peace be with you.

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Thanks for listening, Heartlifter. What a privilege to be with you today. Let's keep this conversation going on Substack at Heartlift Central, Instagram at Janelle Rarden, Facebook at today's Heartlift with Janelle. And if you would be so kind, please leave a review and a rating and support the show through any size donation, tax deductible or just a gift. All the information you need is on my site, JanelleRarden.com. Heartlifter, remember, you have value, worth, and dignity.