Ruth or Orpah

As I was reading the story of Ruth and Naomi I was trying to think of who I identified with the most. This was hard for me because I am a male and there is a theme of patriarchy that is explicit in the story of Ruth and Naomi, as there needs to be a kinsmen redeemer in order for Ruth and Naomi to be taken care of. But, as I was pondering the reactions of Orpah and Ruth, I felt like I most identified with Ruth. This is because she left everything she knew, to go with Naomi, even when she did not have too. Maybe I identify with this, because I often want to be her. I want to be able to forsake everything that I have been in order to go to new places. I have done this before. Well, sort of. After I graduated from college, I left everything I had known and moved to New Jersey. I knew no one up there. I had little money and resources available to me, and yet, I moved. I did not really forsake anyone back home, because my family and close friends supported me and my decision through financial support and prayer. However, I move to unknown lands, to do unknown things. It was an experience that changed my life in ways I will never understand. For the first time in my life, I was away from everything I had known, and I encountered the Triune God in ways I never thought possible. I encountered God in the people who I would have never had conversations with if I would have still been in my middle class Mississippi setting. I encountered God because for the first time in my life, I was the minority. I encountered God because for the first time in my life, I hung out with drug dealers who were not rich, white, suburban kids selling their parents prescription drugs. It was wonderful and a time in my life that I never want to forget. But yet, I did not dedicate my whole life to this. I wish I could have forsaken everything and moved permanently, just as Ruth forsook all she had known and moved into an entirely different land with entirely different people then her own.

So, I identify with Ruth somewhat, but not entirely. I think she challenges me to be a person who is willing to give up everything to go to other people. So many times, we expect people to come to us and to assimilate to our cultures and our ways of live. This is antithetical to the gospel and antithetical to the incarnation. If we are truly Incarnational people, I believe that we are to go to others in love, to live with them, know them, love them, walk with them, no matter where they find themselves. We are often times called to forsake the things we have known, so that we can serve the Triune God by loving others. So, I want to identify with Ruth more in this aspect. There was no question that she was going to follow Naomi, no matter where that took her, and that is a scary, yet beautiful thing.