New Year, Keep Going
Photo by Mallorie Terranova
Ahh it’s January again. A new year ahead. . . a time to have the courage to hope and dream and also take account of our limitations as humans. When we take time to hope and dream it requires risk as well as acknowledgement of the areas of lack and longing that still exist in our lives. We wouldn’t need new year’s resolutions if we had everything figured out, had perfect bods, perfect relationships, and drank a sufficient amount of water daily. The reality is, we are broken creatures living in a broken world, yet it is in our nature to hope. “Maybe I can be better this year… maybe this will get better if I do x, y, and z.” Don’t get me wrong, I love a fresh start. You can read more about that here. But maybe what most of us need to hear right now is “just keep going.” Maybe it’s best not to have too many goals for the year. What if you can just keep walking faithfully, trusting God’s leading, and following the good path He has set before you? Focusing too much on end goals distracts us from the real treasure that is the process of walking with God and trusting He will provide for you all along the way. That is the joy. Furthermore, what if… as much as we set aside time to make our lists and plans and words for the year, we don’t even have the imagination for the good things God has in store for us as we continue to trust and obey? What if our job is to just keep following Him and let Him take care of the rest? I like the sound of that.
What if God’s ways truly are better than anything we could imagine? What if, in Him, all things really do hold together? What if Jesus really does want to be our Friend? Woah.
We are reading Ruth in our Daily Bible Readings right now, and I’ve been reminded how much TRUST and WAITING and OBEDIENCE seem to bring about the most fruit and blessing in the long run. Naomi lost her husband and both of her sons. Ruth lost her husband. Both of them had no earthly covering or provider. They were so bad off, they assumed the Lord was against them because of their circumstances… they felt cursed in a sense.
But they kept going. Ruth trusted her mother in law and obeyed her instruction. (In a sense, she trusted God by trusting Naomi’s wisdom and insight), and ultimately they were rewarded for their humble trust and acts of obedience.
“May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” - Ruth 2:12b
Boaz, their redeemer, was originally outside of their imaginations. They didn’t say to one another “we shall go to Naomi’s homeland, Judah, and God will abundantly bless us.” No, they thought God was against them… they were just there to hopefully survive off of scraps. They didn’t have eyes to see the blessing in store for them as they went “home to God,” but eventually watched provision unfold in front of them. It started with a simple act of obedience, or perhaps intuition to go back to Naomi’s homeland… the land where God reigned. Then, once they came home, their eyes were opened to hope, and as Ruth stepped out in obedience and humble trust, she was saved. But her obedience not only saved her…
“Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, ‘Naomi has a son.’ And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.” - Ruth 4:7
Obed was David’s grandfather, who we know was the family line of Jesus. Ruth’s acts of trust and obedience allowed her to take part in bringing forth the Savior of the whole world… the ultimate Redeemer.
So as we begin this new year, let’s focus less on the results we want to see from our own labor or from God… let’s simply go home to Him and TRUST that we will find rich blessings that are outside of our imaginations. HE is the prize. HE is the provision. We don’t have to go far to find Him because He is always present with us. We can take our vitamins, move our bodies, and have courage to hope that things can be better this year. But let’s hold all of our ideas loosely, believing that God’s hopes for us are better than our minds can fathom. It’s in the process of waiting, trusting, and daily walking this out that we are made ready to receive the blessings. Then, as we walk along this path of trust, we discover that we are blessed all along the way because He is with us. He is equipping, healing, and leading us into deeper levels of redemption. He is our Boaz with a harvest in store while we have our eyes stuck on the scraps along the edge of the fields.
Our God is a long-haul God who does have rich blessings in store for us! He wants to care and provide for your specific needs, but He also wants to meet you along the way. Then, by the time you get there (to the blessing / Boaz) you will be ready to receive it. You will have been transformed by His presence and trusting Him. You will have eyes to see and ears to hear.
May we find real REST and JOY in Him this year along the path of faithfulness and trust, not as an end result of striving. May we enjoy friendship with Jesus and enjoy the benefits of walking closely with Him. He is our “kinsman-redeemer” who has already prepared the way and just wants us to keep going. Then, I think we will discover that walking with Him and learning to enjoy His presence was the real blessing all along.
*Need help with this? You’re not alone! Here is Ross’ blog post that spells out five simple practices that help us, as a body of believers, walk this path of faithfulness together. We aren’t meant to go at it alone.