It’s November, so this will be the last of the highlights as part of celebrating 10 years of For the Journey. It still seemed a bit too soon for a “From the Writings of Paul” highlight, so I went with another podcast highlight this month. I struggled a little more with choosing an episode this time, but I finally went with Episode 3, which was originally released in May of 2021. I probably enjoyed this particular episode so much because I got to talk about one of my absolute favorite books of the Bible–Ruth, and revisiting it for this post was good for me. Again, I opted for sharing my script from the episode rather than the audio again, so I hope you enjoy giving it a read instead of a listen this time or enjoy it for the first time if you missed it back in 2021.
For the Journey Podcast
Episode 3: “When the Journey Leaves You Bitter”
Welcome back to For the Journey Podcast. I hope your week is off to a good start. This is not at all the episode I originally had in mind for this month. But, God changed my plans sort of last minute, and tonight we’re looking at “When the Journey Leaves You Bitter.”
If it’s not my favorite book of the Bible, Ruth is definitely near the top of my list, and one of the reasons I love it so well is Naomi’s journey from bitterness to joy. As much as I admire the incredibly faithful and fiercely loyal Ruth, most of the time, I relate more to the pessimistic and bitter Naomi. I can be a bit of an Eeyore if we’re admitting faults…
When we first meet Naomi, her grief at losing her husband and both her sons has left her so bitter, she encourages her daughters-in-law to return to their people—people who neither believed in nor worshipped the Lord. And, she succeeds with one of them. She’s so bitter she doesn’t really care when Ruth proclaims her faith in the one true God. She just stops speaking to her when she sees she can’t convince her to go home to her family. She’s so bitter that, when they make it to Bethlehem, she can’t even stand to hear her own name. She’s not Naomi. She’s not pleasant. She’s anything but. She’s Mara. Bitter.
So, let’s explore how Naomi got to that point and how we sometimes get to that point.
First, the journey leaves us bitter when we decide God got it wrong. As Naomi’s trying to convince Orpah and Ruth to go home to their families, she tells them, “it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me” (Ruth 1:13). Later, when she dubs herself Mara, she says, “for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?” (Ruth 1:20-21). In Naomi’s mind, God was wrong to take her husband and both her sons. God could have and should have prevented her intense grief, but instead, He chose to afflict her. He chose to leave her heart-broken and alone in the world. It was all God’s fault.
And, whether it’s in grief, as was the case for Naomi, or in frustration and disappointment, when we stop trusting that God knows best even when He allows us to face unpleasant and painful circumstances and start blaming Him, we quickly grow bitter. Even when our journey is filled with heartache and pain, even when it leaves us wondering why and longing for a detour to a much smoother path, we have to trust that God knows what He’s doing and allowing in our lives. Otherwise we’ll be as bitter as Naomi.
Our journey also leaves us bitter when we close our eyes to our blessings. Let’s look at Naomi’s words when she tells the people of Bethlehem to call her Mara again. She makes the statement: “I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty” (Ruth 1:21). Wait a minute… Empty? What about Ruth, the devoted daughter-in-law walking beside her, the one who left country and kindred to remain with her, the one who a little later in the narrative labors hard gleaning in the fields to provide and care for her? God hadn’t brought Naomi home empty. God had brought her home with Ruth, a tremendous blessing.
Yes, our journey through life will be hard at times, extremely hard at times, and yes, there will be times when it seems like everything is going wrong and we have to look a whole lot harder for our blessings. But, even in the roughest stretches of our journey, God is good, and there will be blessings. We shouldn’t close our eyes to that and choose to see only the bad as Naomi did. If we do, yeah, we’re gonna get lost in bitterness.
Finally, our journey leaves us bitter when we lose hope, when we stop believing things can change, stop believing things will get better. At the beginning of the Book of Ruth, Naomi honestly believed her story was all but over. She was too old for another husband, too old for more children. In her mind, she would spend the rest of her days lonely, poor, grief-stricken, and likely even fearful with living at the time of the judges and without the benefit of male protection. Little did she know, the Lord was going to lead Ruth, that blessing of a daughter-in-law of hers, to the fields of a mighty and wealthy man by the name of Boaz who just so happened to be a kinsmen of her deceased husband Elimelech. Little did she know, Boaz would be willing and able to act as their kinsman redeemer. Little did she know, one day, the women of Bethlehem would be rejoicing with her over the birth of Obed, a child who would be, as the women put it, a restorer of life to Naomi and a nourisher of her old age (Ruth 4:15). Had Naomi’s life taken a devastating turn? Yes. Absolutely. But, it wasn’t over. Her situation was not as hopeless as it seemed. God hadn’t abandoned her, and she was going to know joy again. There was still reason for her to hope.
In our own lives, when we face bad day after bad day, when life feels like endless struggle, rather than growing bitter, rather than deciding things will never improve, we need to hold on to hope. We need to trust that one day the storm will pass. The struggle will end. We need to expect that elusive good day to come. We need to look forward to the moment we realize, even when it didn’t feel like it, God knew what He was doing and had good plans for us all along.
So, to sum it all up, to avoid growing bitter along your journey, remember: God never gets it wrong; look for your blessings; and always hang on to hope. Thanks again for listening, and God bless!
For the Journey Literature 