When You Don't Fit the Bigger Picture

In the middle of the Bible history books, we come to a little 4-chapter book called Ruth. Scholars don't know what to do with it, even in my reading assignments, Ruth doesn't have an overall theme to explore. The book becomes incorporated into the history book section but simply because it doesn't fit into any other category. It is a book that tells a story but doesn't necessarily move the whole of the Bible story forward. It just sits there, taunting scholars to define it.

Ironically, Ruth and Esther, another book that stumps scholars into easily categorizing, are my favourite Bible stories. Perhaps I like them because the entire books are written about women. In a chauvinistic culture, these books elevate the status and role of women in God's story. I am a woman on mission to find significance and influence and I'm passionate about women roles within leadership, church and the world, but I think there is more.

Ruth gives value and a voice to those who feel like they don't fit in. I was at a wedding on Saturday. I can't remember a time in recent history when I've felt so acutely out of place. There was a lot of self-talk in the car before I was able to walk into the room with confidence. As a friend within a small crowd of family, I was asked how I fit into the story of the wedding couple's story. I don't think it was a coincidence that my Scripture reading plan brought me to the book of Ruth. Unable to clearly define the book of Ruth brings comfort to me when seemingly random events outside of the 'bigger picture' take place. It brings comfort when my entire life seems outside the larger story of God's story.

Ruth also offers us insight and hope. The book of Judges ends the narrative with the words, "everyone did as he saw fit," and Ruth begins, "In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land." Famine wasn't supposed to happen in the promised land. Famine was a curse that would come to pass if the people failed to keep the covenant. A sure indication that the covenant was not kept was found in the last line of Judges, "everyone did as he saw fit."

The covenant was built on community. Women, by nature, are community-driven and community-focussed. I think Ruth is an example of hope that community still exists within the larger story, when the rest of the evidence isn't so obvious.

Without dwelling on the obvious negative actions: famine, Elimelech moving his family to the Godless country of Moab, and taking Moabite women as wives for his sons, the story of Ruth is an expression of covenant community lived at the ideal level. It is hopeful. The story binds woman to woman, foreigner to national, it seeks the best interest of the widow and the needy. And once again, God brings a covenant community out of a culture that didn't acknowledge him. Once again, God calls us first into a relationship with him.

Ruth may be a side-step for scholars but I think Ruth provides a dialogue and an invitation for the outsider.

I'm an outsider by choice, she said, but I'm hoping that won't be my choice forever. ~Brian Andreas

le Perfumerie

During the Olympics, I took my family downtown Vancouver to catch some of the Olympic spirit that seemed to fill every nook, cranny and crevice. The crowd was impressive, assaulting all the senses – sight, sound, touch, taste, smell; especially the smells. We walked by a little Lebanese hole in the wall twice before being compelled to stop. The smell emanating from the doorway was warm and delicious, inviting us to partake. And after 20 minutes in a line, we finally had the source of the mouth-watering smell in our hands. The taste? Let’s just say the taste fell exceedingly short.

Scripture says we are the aroma, the fragrance of Christ. The fragrance of Christ isn’t a product that can bottled, sold and worn; it’s something that we are. The verb, to be. Often I have a strong temptation to act like a sweet fragrance, but when the end result is appearance or facade, I am [to others] like the disappointment we experienced when we tasted the shawarma. The Lord is good. My fragrance should be also.

There are 600 people at the conference this weekend. I see the familiar nametags everywhere I look in the hotel, nearby restaurants and I wonder do the people serving us smell and taste the goodness of the Lord? Gary once told me that the staff at the Pan Pacific Hotel dread Missions Fest weekend at the Convention Centre because the Christians that come from all over the world have an attitude of entitlement. They are demanding and cheap.

Today, for the final day of the conference, the perfume bottle stays untouched. I’m going to be a different kind of fragrance.

Last night I was talking with a friend and I was remembering an incident when my enemy tried to entangle me in the bondage of unforgiveness. I remember the moment clearly, I even remember where I was standing in the apartment we lived in downtown. The familiar feeling was quick to rise up, seemingly starting in my belly and moving towards a hot flush on my face. I felt the anger and indignation flare up and momentarily I gave into it there, but instead of allowing my pride to consume me, I overcame. It was a significant moment, because I have not been tempted in that way again. (to be sure, it was a specific incident, and surely I still struggle with forgiveness in many other areas)

If God could work in me once like that, he can surely work in me again but I fear I've been like Gideon, wasting time until there is no choice for me but to act.

I've been reading a book by Donald Miller, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" and I'm impacted by Miller's explanation of story and the significance of an inciting incident, a catalyst that moves the story forward.

The year that I've taken out of leadership to pursue God has not been exactly what I thought it would be. I'm looking towards the year's deadline and I am not sure I accomplished what I thought I would accomplish but I do pray that this is an inciting incident in my life and that going forward, I will not waste time any longer but I will act.

Today, I want to see Jesus. A while back, Max asked me if when I say that I'm going to see Jesus, if I really see him. I answered yes to him, but it's been a long time since I've had a vision of Jesus. I want to see him today. I'm confident Jesus will be where I'm going to be, I pray that I'll have the eyes to see him.