Walking with God in a Big Decision
POST BY MATT MCCOY
5 minute read
Currently Spring Church meets for a public worship service on the second and fourth Sunday evenings of the month. On the Friday before, the blog is a preview of what is coming on Sunday, sort of like the reading you might do before attending a class. This is part of a series on Ruth, as we explore how God is at work and at play in the everyday joys and frustrations of ordinary life. You can find the rest of the blogs within this series HERE.
When I was a (much) younger man, and I was praying about if I should marry Denise, I wanted to get outside the city and spend some time in prayer. I lived in Abilene, TX, at the time, which is quite possibly the flattest place on earth. I stopped my truck on an overpass on Interstate 20, which gave me a great view Abilene, and a memorable place to pray (Wow, this paragraph sounds like the beginning of a weird country song, and is doing nothing for redneck stereotypes. Please keep reading).
My prayers involved asking for a dramatic sign from God. Choosing to marry Denise was such a HUGE decision, I wanted a correspondingly HUGE sign from God that I was making the right choice. In my (much) younger imagination, the following signs seemed totally appropriate. If God wanted me to marry Denise, then:
God should roll the clouds back like a scroll.
2. God should use a voice that sounds a lot like Charlton Heston, amplified over all of Abilene, that says, “YES, MATT SHOULD MARRY DENISE.”
3. God should cause my truck to levitate, maybe just a little bit. (Looking back, this is my favorite one.)
4. God should have a chorus of angels surround me and we could all start singing together, kinda like when Jesus was born in the Gospels or when John entered the throne room in Revelation.
Sadly, yet obviously, none of these things happened.
Hey, I’ve read the Bible stories, and I know God can do amazing things. God has spoken through burning bushes (Exodus 3), talking donkeys (Numbers 22), angels (all the time), and direct speech (all the time). Getting married to Denise was this HUGE decision, and it was time for God to provide a HUGE sign. I left that overpass on I-20 still crazy in love with Denise, but a little unsure about how God’s amazing signs and wonders worked.
Going back to the story of Ruth, we see Ruth and Boaz both make some HUGE decisions, but have you noticed what isn’t there?
There isn’t any miraculous or supernatural activity to provide confirmation that the main characters are making the right decision. Hey, I love stories like when Elijah calls down fire from heaven (1 Kings 18), and I would love to have God straight-up tell me where to go, like Abraham (Gen 12). And sometimes miracles happen in my life, and I love it when they do.
Elijah Calls Down Fire | Source: Bibleencyclopedia.com
Yet most days, “discipleship” means I have to rely on the spiritual formation that has already taken place, rather than miracles, in order to make decisions. Daniel makes a firm decision about what he wouldn’t do as a slave in Babylon without a miracle (Daniel 1:8), his three friends are tossed into a furnace while recognizing their inability to know if God would save them (Daniel 3:16-18), and Daniel faced the den of lions without any miraculous support (Daniel 6).
Which happens more frequently in your life?
Let’s look at two examples of how Ruth and Boaz make a major life decision.
First, in perhaps the most famous speech in the book (1:16), Ruth says to Naomi:
“Wherever you go I will go. Wherever you reside, I will reside. Your people is my people, and your god is my god. Wherever you die, I will die, and there will I be buried.”
What isn’t a part of this story is a burning bush, a talking donkey, an angel, God’s direct speech (Does Charlton Heston speak Hebrew?), or a truck levitating over Highway 20. Instead, Ruth is demonstrating how her life embodies discipleship as “walking in the direction God is walking in.” This Moabite woman, invisible to the people of Bethlehem when she arrives, is going to disciple the people of God on how to walk with God. And so she makes the HUGE decision to keep walking with Naomi to Bethlehem (even though she didn’t have to) because that was the direction God was leading her.
Second, in one of the most famous examples of a woman taking the initiative in a patriarchal culture (Ruth 3), Ruth appears at night on the threshing floor, at the feet of Boaz, while he's sleeping after the celebration of the barley harvest. She signals that she wants him to marry her (3:9), and he replies that he wants to marry her (3:11).
Again, what isn’t part of this story is the ways in which Ruth and Boaz communicate with God about this major life decision, neither is there anything about God granting them a sign in order to know that their marriage is in alignment with God’s will. This story presents what life looks like when people walk in the direction God is walking in, as they go living their lives in the story they find themselves in.
The story of Ruth doesn’t demonstrate the piety of Ruth and Boaz, in that we don’t see them pray, worship, take a Sabbath, go to the place of worship in Bethlehem, or have anything that a modern westerner would define as a “quiet time.” Yet it would be the height of folly to read this story and think that our individual piety doesn’t matter. All of our spiritual practices matter a great deal; our own time spent in prayer, in scripture reading, in participating in the life of the church.
When I go to a concert, I see people create amazing music, even though I’ve never seen them practice. I see the benefit of their music practice, on display in front of me.
When I go to a sporting event, I see people achieve amazing athletic feats, even though I’ve never seen them practice. I see the benefit of their athletic practice, on display in front of me.
When I read the story of Ruth, I see Ruth and Boaz make major life decisions, even though I’ve never read about their discipleship. I see the benefit of their spiritual practice, on display in front of me.
And so, as I reflect on that evening on I-20 in Abilene, I think God didn’t provide any of the HUGE signs I was asking for, because those sorts of signs weren’t necessary. I had my spiritual practices, and Denise had hers, and the benefit of that was on display as we walked in the direction God was walking in. And we were blessed to have the confirmation of our church and community, just as Boaz was blessed to have the people of Bethlehem pay attention to this previously-invisible immigrant named Ruth, as he observes in 3:11, “everyone in town knows what a courageous woman you are!” (Americans tend be very individualistic, so rest assured that the role of our church as we pursue community discernment will be featured in the months to come.)
One of the benefits of our common discipleship is the ability to make great decisions, as we walk in the direction God is walking in.
