What We Leave Behind

Since my grandma passed away a few months ago I’ve been thinking a lot about the impact that our lives have on people once we move on to the next life. By worldly standards she lived a pretty ordinary life. However, I know few people who have had a greater impact for the kingdom of God. To know her was to know Christ. She brought Him into everything she did. His love and joy shone through every conversation. She led each of her children along with many of her grandchildren and friends to know Him and persistently and patiently loved and prayed for all of us no matter how stubbornly we had gone astray. She was an amazing listener. Her laugh and her smiles were contagious, and she knew when to speak the truth to us and when to wait until we were ready to receive it. Even though she never wrote any bestselling books, ran for office, or made  it into any history textbooks, her legacy of love and faith will live on from generation to generation through the people that she impacted. 

This year for my ministry retreat, I will be leading a group of young women through the book of Ruth. Among the many powerful, spiritual themes in this short but rich book in the Old Testament, one of my favorites is of spiritual legacy. Like my grandma, Ruth was a pretty ordinary woman. By the world’s standards, she did nothing extraordinary that would make her name be remembered. However, the faith legacy that she left behind changed the world forever. 

After her husband died, Ruth left behind her family, her native country, and her gods to follow her mother-in-law to Israel, a foreign land where she would be regarded as a stranger and outcast, (Ruth 1: 1 - 22). She left behind everything that she knew and stepped out in faith. She trusted in the God of Israel knowing she would have little means of providing for or protecting her and her mother-in-law, Naomi. When Naomi told her to abandon her and return to the safety and security of her parent’s home and native country, she replied, 

“‘Don’t 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 will be my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me,” (Ruth 1: 16 - 17, NIV). 

Ruth could have just gone back to the life that she had known before she married, but she chose to put her faith in God and follow her mother-in-law into a foreign land to an unknown future. God provided for her by guiding her to work in Boaz’s field, who would eventually marry her. Through Boaz she became the great-grandmother of King David, the greatest king Israel ever had. Her lineage would eventually lead to the birth of Christ, (Ruth 4: 1 - 22 & Matthew 1: 1 - 16, NIV). If Ruth had chosen to return to her native country, her family, and her gods, she probably would have been able to live a secure, perhaps even happy life, but it would not have been able to compare to the legacy of faith that she left behind by choosing to follow her mother-in-law into a foreign land and unknown future. 

During my sophomore year of college, I was faced with a very difficult decision. I have to choose between following God’s guidance into the unknown like Ruth or hiding inside my comfort zone and running from the calling and life that God had given me. I choose the latter. I ran and didn’t look back for over a year until I finally reached a dead end and was forced to turn back and face all my mistakes. Unlike Ruth, I chose the easier option. l I  completely exhausted all my resources that were allowing me to run, and I could no longer hide from my calling. 

Since I turned back and started living out the calling that God has given me, He has led me far out of my comfort zone, which had become quite small over the year and a half that I had been running. The Apostle Paul tells us to “walk by faith, not by sight,” (1 Corinthians 5: 7, NKJV). While I was running, I was walking by sight. I trusted in myself and only the things that I could see. I thought that that path would save me and lead me to better places than walking by faith, but it only led me to pain and despair. When my grandma passed away, I began to see the reality of my life choices and where they were leading me. My grandma was someone who walked by faith even through the darkest and most difficult circumstances. Like Ruth, she chose to trust in something beyond herself and what her eyes could see. I want my legacy to be the same even when it means following Christ far beyond my comfort zone. 

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about The C.A.N Sisters’ Ministry, leave a comment below, check out my website, or email me at cansistersministry@gmail.com.