Crossroads

a dear friend of mine recommended me The Meeting House as a source for soul food. i took her advice and as i am unwinding at the end of a long day, i am hit with a message about life defining moments.

The sermon focuses on Ruth, Orpah and Naomi. Naomi's husband has died making her a widow. She's left with her two sons and her two daughter-in-laws, Ruth and Orpah. But her sons also die and so the three widows find themselves at a crossroads. Naomi suggests that her two daughter-in-laws return back to their mother's homes - there is a greater chance they will be able to remarry and find a new home with a new husband. So Orpah and Ruth need to make a decision. Do they follow Naomi back to Isreal or do they return back to their homeland of Moab? Orpah makes a decision to return back ....


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. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."
[Ruth 1: 16-17]

sometimes we find ourselves at a crossroads in life and we have a decision to make. For some, we need to evaluate the situation, look at it from all angles and seek out answers to questions that we have before we can make a commitment one way or another. So we pitch up a temporary tent to wait at this crossroads before we make our final decision. Some people will camp out here while they are earnestly seeking out answers to their questions and some people will camp out here pretending they are earnestly seeking but really have no intention at all of making a commitment in the end. And sometimes don't the people who start off earnestly seeking out answers to their questions end up getting comfortable in the non-committed state? At what point will enough of your questions be answered before you can make a decision? And if you need just one more question answered, does this mean that when that question is answered, there won't be another question to take its place?

Going back to Ruth and Orpah, both women made their choices at the crossroads without having all their questions answered. Ruth took a leap of faith and made a heartfelt commitment to stay with and follow Naomi. Orpah also took a leap of faith and made a decision to take Naomi's advice for her life by returning to her mother's home in Moab. Ruth's commitment to Naomi is reflected in the rest of the book but can we learn something from these women about taking courage and making decisions during life defining moments?

It is important to say that we shouldn't make decisions just for the sake of making them or because we feel pressured or forced to make decisions before we are ready. If you need the time to camp out and ponder the situation, feel free to do so. But be wary when you start to feel comfortable in this temporary resting place. when you start to become too comfortable, it may be a sign that you already have all you need to know to make a decision.