RUTH: From Pain to Recovery and Restoration

In the previous post, we dealt with the subject of pain and how we all experience it at different points in our lives, with a focus on what we do with our pain. In this follow-up post, we are going to learn from the life of Ruth, practical steps to ensure recovery and restoration having gone through pain.

For starters, Ruth is one of the shortest, yet loaded books of the Bible. Reading Ruth with New Testament lenses, one begins to see the 4-chapter book littered with God’s ultimate plan of redemption, concealed as in types and shadows. In the nearest future, we hope to run a series on the book of Ruth on this blog.

Who was Ruth? She was Naomi’s daughter-in-law, she was a widow just like Naomi and Orpah, her sister-in-law. She was a Moabite and by implication an outcast from the assembly of the Lord and alien to the commonwealth of Israel (Deuteronomy 23: 3-4). Ruth is set at a time when Israel was embroiled in a political and spiritual leadership crisis and were being led by judges. Ruth experienced the loss of her father-in-law, husband, brother-in-law and later on, her sister-in-law who chose to return to her people instead of continuing to Bethlehem of Judea. I know what my family went through when my aunt lost her husband, but for Ruth, she lost four people and more! How did she transit from pain to full recovery and restoration?

1.      She was determined (Ruth 1: 16-19): Ruth made up her mind to leave her past, her pain and all it contained behind in Moab and continue toward Bethlehem. Do you know that for Ruth, leaving Moab was another loss - of family, her gods, people-, the familiar and her inheritance as she was embracing an uncertain future? I am aware some nations don’t allow dual citizenship and if you choose to embrace another country’s citizenship, you forgo your right to lay claims to any inheritance left by your family. This has caused no small stir in some families whose children, especially male children, have opted to jettison their citizenship for another. Ruth was in a similar dilemma but determined she’d had enough. Like Ruth, make up your mind to let the past pass, or you will pass with the past. It’s about time you stopped holding on to your pain, rehearsing your failure or wallowing in it.

2.      She got to work (Ruth 2: 2): After moving to Bethlehem Ruth got to work! Even though Bethlehem means the house of bread and she and Naomi arrived at barley harvest season, she didn’t sit around and throw a pity party. She had every reason to but she chose differently. Scripture says there is a time for everything, mourning is for a season. All over scripture, mourning is recognized albeit not forever: Abraham mourned Sarah, Joseph mourned Jacob, the Israelites mourned Moses. When we wallow in grieve, we rob ourselves of chances for any appreciable progress. We do not grieve as those who have no hope.  The Israelites couldn’t progress until they stopped mourning. I remember my aunt went out and got a teaching job some weeks after her husband’s burial, life had to continue, she had three mouths to feed. Ever since she has engaged in different small businesses and is in the process of setting up a school of her own. It was in the process of working that God connected Ruth with Boaz.

3.      She heeded counsel (Ruth 3: 5): Ruth took counsel- not just any counsel, mind you- but godly counsel. And she heeded it to the letter. The prescription given by Naomi for Ruth to get Boaz’s attention was what obtained in the day’s culture, this puts to rest any speculation that may suggest Ruth was giving herself up cheaply. In your journey to recovery, surround yourself with counselors and heed godly counsel because, in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. Like Ruth, be open to God and His people.

Ruth reveals a plain truth which everyone who cares to pay attention to and understand will agree with: Pain is real. But recovery and restoration is more real and runs deep down, from the inside out, when we turn ourselves over to God and to His people.

The outsider Ruth was not born into the faith and felt no natural part of it- like many of us. But Ruth, by her decision to let go of her pain, get to working and heed counsel went on to detach herself from the curse and pain and got enlisted as a matriarch of the Messiah, thus experiencing full recovery and restoration. Have you experienced pain? It is time to experience recovery and restoration.

At what points in your life have you experienced recovery and restoration? We would love to celebrate God’s work in you as well as cheer you on in the process, do spare some minutes and share with us in the comment section.

ANNA: HANDLING PAIN THE RIGHT WAY

It was the second Sunday of May 2019 and it was (American) Mothers Day. Apparently, there’s a lot of confusion regarding how many Mothers Day we celebrate in a year. To clear the air on that, we need to know that Mothers Day falls on different days depending on the countries where it is celebrated. It is held on the second Sunday of May in many countries, such as Australia, Canada, and The United States. It is held exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday in the United Kingdom, the same with Nigeria probably because of our history with the UK. For a list of specific Mother’s Day in different countries, check here.

 Back to my gist, that Sunday marked the end of our Wonder Women of the Bible series we had been treating as a church. We had considered different female characters in the Bible such as Esther, Ruth and others and this Sunday, it was Anna, the prophetess in Luke 2: 36-38. By the way, my church is blessed with wonder-women, if you think wonder-women started and ended in the Bible, you need to visit my church and meet the many women in my life who have impacted and helped shape and mould me at different critical junctures of my life from my mum (my numero uno Wonderwoman) to my Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Eluyera, down to my Indonesian mum, Ms. Ani Pearman and all the other wonder-women too numerous to mention here.

So, back to Sunday, the soft speaking Pastor Korie Taylor shared on the subject- Anna: from tragedy to triumph. It was a simple message but I’ve come to learn that simple is powerful and elegant! Ms. Korie shared from her life experiences and those of her parents and their friends, who all at different times had to deal with pain and how they responded to that pain. It was during that message that it dawned on me, that unlike many other popular Bible characters, Anna’s life of over 80 years, was summarized in only three verses in the Bible. But there’s much to learn from this amazing woman as we all can relate with her and do share something in common with her: pain.

Pastor Korie realized that her parents and each of the adults in their lifelong circle of friends- all followers of Jesus- had faced significant pain and tragedy from the death of loved ones to sicknesses, financial hardships etc.

As I sat there listening to the full-time teacher, mom and pastor’s wife speak, I was reminded of the year 2012 when tragedy struck my family. My parents lost a son in a fatal car accident, a week to Christmas. My aunt had become my parent’s firstborn by proxy, as they had assumed her responsibility shortly after they got married, she was our (my siblings and me) sister, she babysat us, she was our second mother. My parents gladly gave out her hand in holy matrimony in 2008 to a man who had become family. But the joy was short-lived when he left behind a 3-year-old son and 11 months old set of twins just a week to Christmas of 2012.

I was young and could not process the pain much, but watching my parents and aunt grieve broke my heart. I watched my parents bury him a few days to Christmas and then lead a congregation to worship God for the gift of Christ at Christmas. I remember vividly my mum telling me she told God, He knows best and everything is clear to Him, so she let go. I recall my aunt saying, like the Shunammite woman after the death of her son, “it is well” when visitors came calling to commiserate with us. I saw everyone, my siblings as well, and all the people Pastor Korie shared about boldly declare “God will see us through.”

What was their secret? How did they pull through and were not torn apart? There are 3 things they all did in their pain, and we also should do in our pain:

1.       Surround yourself with the presence of God (Ps.73: 25-26) like Peter in John 6: 68-69: they declared by their words and actions “Lord to whom shall we go? We have come to know that you have the words of eternal life.” We surround ourselves with God’s presence by engaging in routine spiritual habits of worship, reading God’s word, fasting and praying and fellowship with other believers. When it becomes our routine, we can easily turn to it in our pain.

2.       Surround yourself with the people of God (Pro.27:17). Anna was in the temple, rubbing shoulders with Simeon, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The people of God will be a source of comfort and strength as they stand by us as we go through pain. Connect with God’s people in your local church, in your cell fellowship, Bible study unit, service unit among others.

3.       Spend time serving God (Luke 2:38). Anna served God in and through her pain and brokenness for decades since her years as a young widow. It is never too late or too early to start serving God¹.

I have watched my parents and many others go through pain practicing the 3 points above and I have seen God gently bear them through hard times and that which was meant to destroy them made them stronger. If we surround ourselves with God’s presence, God’s people and serving God, we will see God. Because of her choices, Anna saw Jesus with her own eyes. In Luke 2:30-32 Simeon declared “I have seen your salvation…”

Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, I don’t know, and I’m pretty sure Pastor Korie doesn’t know either. But what we do know is that we can set ourselves up for triumph in the face of tragedy by surrounding ourselves with God’s presence.

Let me conclude by saying this: in our pain lies an opportunity to offer up to God a sacrifice of praise. And as we offer this sacrifice, we can rest assured God will meet us right there.

Have you experienced pain? How did you pull through? Perhaps there are other secrets beyond those listed? Please feel free to share with us in the comment section. It is always a pleasure reading your thoughts.

EndNote

1.       Sermon outline Anna: From Tragedy to Triumph. Sunday, 12^th May 2019, International Christian Assembly, Surabaya. To get the full message and other resources kindly visit www.icasby.com.