05
No Matter What
Jon Burgess“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 even death separates you and me.” When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.” Ruth 1:16-18 NIV
At the intersection of the depressed and the determined Ruth wept forward while Orpah went back. Orpah is not the villain. Honestly, Orpah is where most of us live. It didn't make sense for her to journey on to a foreign land with Naomi. She made the logical choice. Not cold, not hard, just a natural next step. It was not natural to make the covenant Ruth made with Naomi. To stick by her side no matter what! That's the thing that makes a covenant people so rare, it's not natural or logical. Covenant is a choice that stubbornly refuses to back down, make excuses or change its mind. Covenant puts the needs of someone else over itself. Covenant is not convenient. Covenant is courageous. Covenant is choosing to love no matter what!
Just over a week ago I read these very words from Ruth to Naomi in a wedding vows. The bride repeated them to the groom just as my bride had repeated this same covenant promise to me almost 19 years ago. In fact every time I read these words it brings me back to that moment! Cyndi, the most beautiful woman in the world was pledging her life to me. She began to tear up as she uttered these words from the very depth of her being. As I wiped the tear from her cheek she nor I had any idea how these words would be tested. Through multiple ministry moves many at the most inconvenient of times Cyndi went back to "where you go I will go" trusting that I was leading us where God wanted us to go. When I have found myself at the intersection of the depressed and the determined these words have led us through. It's a covenant promise. It's not logical. It's not convenient. It's not easy. It's NO MATTER WHAT!
Lord, I thank you for my bride who sits right beside me this morning reading Your Word and pursuing Your heart just as she has done long before I ever met her. The determination I read of in Ruth is the same I see in her. Thank You for bringing me a woman who has repeatedly chosen covenant over comfort and convenience. Thank You for a woman who will weep forward with me at great cost to herself. My NO MATTER WHAT wife is a true gift from You and an example of what covenant is all about!
