Still Keeping an Ear Out

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 from there. - Ruth 1:6

Naomi’s life was full of suffering. She’d been brutally honest with her disappointment with God. Because of the great hardship and the emotional impact of it on her, she’d even renamed herself Mara, meaning ‘bitter’ instead of Naomi, meaning ‘sweet.’

And yet.

And yet she kept an ear out for God. She heard of Yahweh’s provision for the people of Israel (even though, as she would also argue, it was Yahweh who turned against her in the beginning). She recognized it as God’s work. And she responded - she prepared to go back to reap the benefits of God’s provision.

So how do we do what Naomi did - how do we hold tension with such skill that we neither deny our bitterness nor deny God’s goodness? No doubt there are plenty of areas in your life where you’re facing struggle (we’re in a global pandemic and economic crisis as well as facing unrest around racial injustice, for goodness sake!) - and yet no doubt there are places where you can see God at work (try looking at the sunset if you can’t come up with anything else). Can you embrace both at once? Can you live in the tension of Naomi?

Talk with God about the tension - not just the goodness or the sadness, but the pull of having both in you at the same time.