Managing Insults, Holding Space

 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. - Ruth 1:21

Those are Naomi’s words when she returns home to Bethlehem. The irony is that Ruth is standing right beside her as she laments how she’s alone in the world. So how do you imagine Ruth might be feeling to be equated with nothing? Probably not great, right?!

We don’t have any record of Ruth’s response, but we can extrapolate from the rest of the book that she stuck by Naomi even as Naomi disrespected her in this moment. Ruth somehow seemed to have the capacity to hold a lot of tension, and this insult was no exception. It’s as if she understood the words of her great, great grandson who wrote, “Fools show their annoyance at once, but the prudent overlook an insult” (Proverbs 12:6). Or perhaps those words were passed down to Solomon from Ruth in the first place.

Do you have the internal capacity to hold space for those who are grieving, even when their words may cut you? What does it require not to take those cutting words personally - how do you stay differentiated enough not to react? Invite the Spirit to reflect with you on Ruth’s life to ponder what it might take to grow more like her in this capacity to manage the tension around those who are grieving.