Are You Committed to Your Calling?

Last week, a deep sense of both helplessness and frustration overtook me. 

Maybe you’ve been there too.

When you know your calling, but your hands are tied. When you have a voice but aren’t given the freedom to speak. When you’re passionate about something but forced to pause its expression. 

For a bunch of reasons I can’t share on a public platform, a significant part of my calling came to a standstill.

I looked up to God and asked, “What now, Lord? How am I supposed to be a vehicle for Your glory when my gifts have to be parked? How can I pursue my purpose when doors slam shut in my face?”

My questions led me to the book of Ruth. 

The book of Judges—just before Ruth—closes with disturbing incidents of women being cruelly exploited by people in power. But then comes the book of Ruth about a woman whose agenda was never about wielding power but about yielding to God’s purpose for her life.

A purpose that was vastly different from what she first envisioned. 

The circumstances in Ruth’s life seemed stacked against her.

When Ruth was widowed, the logical, rational thing would have been to pack her bags and head back home to Moab. But she didn’t call it quits.

Ruth would not be dissuaded from God’s call on her life. 

Her mother-in-law, Naomi, was surprisingly persistent in urging her daughters-in-law to return home. Their prospects in Bethlehem, as penniless widows and outsiders, were bleak and hopeless.

Ruth’s sister-in-law, Orpah, gives in. She can’t envision a future for herself in Bethlehem.

But Ruth presses on. She perseveres. She is committed to her purpose of honoring God with her life.

Here’s the thing: Ruth wasn’t merely determined. She was devoted. 

She passionately declares those famous words: For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16)

What prompted that sort of unwavering, faithful commitment? 

Ruth trusted God. 

She trusted that God would work things out for her good and His glory.

She trusted that when God closed some doors, He would open others. 

She trusted that God would turn graves into gardens.

She committed to God’s way because she trusted God’s covenant love for His people.  She went all in.

I don’t know where you’re at today, but I want to take a page from Ruth’s book.

Even as I encounter discouraging circumstances and closed doors, I too want to press on. Those seeming dead ends are but detours which God uses to redirect my life. 

Here’s what I’m learning: I don’t need to perfect that which concerns me. That is His work. I just need to commit to doing the next right thing as He leads me. 

Like Ruth, you may find life looks vastly different from what you first planned.

Yet, can we press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of us?  

Ruth’s storyline is nothing short of stunning. God redirects her path so that this penniless, widowed foreigner, who was most likely barren, becomes the mother of Obed, the grandfather of David. This woman, who simply trusted God and committed to doing the next right thing, was included in the lineage of Jesus!

Ruth’s story is, ultimately, a story of a loving God who included this “outsider” in the redemptive narrative that He was writing. It’s about God’s covenant love for His people. Today, how will we respond to that love even in the face of discouragements and deterrents? 

Here’s what we can pray today:

Heavenly Father, I come before You with absolute raw vulnerability and say, I don’t understand. I don’t know why doors have closed shut and why I am running into discouragement and dead ends. But I trust You to redirect my life through these detours for my good and Your glory. I commit to following Your way in response to Your covenant love. Amen.

 

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