{"id":10996,"date":"2019-09-18T05:59:40","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T10:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=10996"},"modified":"2019-09-18T06:00:09","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T11:00:09","slug":"whatever-it-is-lets-face-it-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=10996","title":{"rendered":"Whatever it is — Let\u2019s Face it Together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you had that kind of friend who wouldn\u2019t take \u201cno\u201d for an answer. You may have said, \u201cNo, I can do it myself\u201d or \u201cNo, I\u2019ll be okay\u201d or \u201cNo, I\u2019ll figure out a way to handle this myself.\u201d But, they would not leave you or forsake you. They were relentless in their efforts to help you. Don\u2019t we want that kind of friend — even though we don\u2019t want to put them out or take their time? Well, I have friends like that \u2013 especially since I\u2019ve been here in Tulsa the last couple of weeks. They have been relentless in seeing after me, bringing me meals, taking me to the doctor, and checking in on me. I\u2019m okay — nothing serious on my part \u2013 but they are friends who don\u2019t take \u201cno\u201d for an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a reminder to me of the story in the Book of Ruth of Naomi and her two daughter-in-laws, Orpah and Ruth. All three women had recently suffered the loss of their husbands. In the depths of Naomi\u2019s grief, she encouraged the girls to go back to their people, and to start a new life. It didn\u2019t take much convincing for Orpah to leave. But Ruth saw right through Naomi\u2019s pain. She refused to go, doubling down on her commitment to Naomi. Ruth was blessed with generosity, compassion and empathy. Even though she had no obligation to Naomi, her love for her mother-in-law and friend made her fiercely loyal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Ruth replied, \u201cDon\u2019t 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.” (Ruth 1:16)
\nI have read that story many times and my husband and I even said Ruth\u2019s words to Naomi in our wedding vows. \u201cRuth\u201d means compassion for the misery of another; empathetic, and \u201cruthless\u201d means without ruth; not empathetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So, the question is: Do we have a Ruth in our life? Do we have someone who won\u2019t let us have a pity party? In reality, we may want grievers with us but what we need is a Ruth — someone who refuses to leave us when we\u2019re down-and-out. We all experience moments of disappointment, great loss, grief, and despair. Our human nature wants to recoil, to withdraw, to turn so inward that we lose sight of the Light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, what we need are good friends who refuse to leave us. We need good friends who encourage us to just keep swimming, telling us that they will not abandon or forsake us. Remember Dory in the \u201cFinding Nemo\u201d movie? She kept saying to Nemo “just keep swimming”, meaning “don’t give up.” We need good friends who love us like they love themselves. The Lord brings so much healing to our hearts through the Ruths in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe today, you are a Naomi, and you need a Ruth. We pray that God brings a Ruth to you \u2013 but maybe your way of rebounding is to be a Ruth in someone\u2019s life. You can either be ruthless (bad and not empathetic) or a Ruth (good and empathetic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friendship is supposed to be entering into a relationship not because of what we can get out of it but because of what it is. We are called to be examples of Christ\u2019s love to the world. When we break free of the selfishness that poisons so many of our relationships and focus on giving our time, effort, and love to those around us, we portray a beautiful image of Christ\u2019s own self-giving. No matter where we are in life or where we stand with our faith, we have the opportunity to bring others (and ourselves) closer to God by being a Ruth to someone today. Thank you to all the \u201cRuths\u201d that have blessed me in my life so much!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you had that kind of friend who wouldn\u2019t take \u201cno\u201d for an answer. You may have said, \u201cNo, I can do it myself\u201d or \u201cNo, I\u2019ll be okay\u201d or \u201cNo, I\u2019ll figure out a way to handle this myself.\u201d But, they would not leave you or forsake you. They were relentless in their efforts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14827,14825,12524,14824,14826,14823],"tags":[1210,14818,2212,14821,6091,14819,1085,683,4504,14820,4141,14817,5232,10736,4143,4144,14822,7880],"class_list":["post-10996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-empathy","category-friendship","category-grief","category-naomi","category-never-leave","category-ruth","tag-blog","tag-book-of-ruth","tag-compassion","tag-down-and-out","tag-empathy","tag-face-it-together","tag-friend","tag-friendship","tag-generosity","tag-grievers","tag-naomi","tag-no-for-an-answer","tag-pity-party","tag-relentless","tag-ruth","tag-ruth-116","tag-ruthless","tag-wedding-vows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10999,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10996\/revisions\/10999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}