Who Is This Mara Person?

I just finished a bible study, Five Habits of a Woman Who Doesn’t Quit. Since it was the wrap-up day, I thought I would read back through the book of Ruth, where the study came from. I was struck by a couple of things that had very little to do with Ruth and everything to do with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Don’t get me wrong, I love this precious story because it isn’t just a love story between a man and a woman, but it is also a story of the love and devotion Ruth had for her mother-in-law. But, it’s Naomi?s story that could have been written today.

So, a little background on our girl, Naomi. She marries this guy, and they have two sons. ?They move to a foreign land because there is a famine in their country and after they got there, he dies. She is a single mom in a foreign land, raising two teenage boys. These boys grow and take wives of there own and after Naomi’s little family has been in Moab for ten years, her sons die also. It’s been a tough time and in a nutshell, Girlfriend is hurting.

Naomi gets word that God has been doing some really great things back in her hometown of Bethlehem, so she decides that if she is going to have to be miserable, she might as well do it where her family is because God isn’t really doing anything for her in Moab. So, Naomi packs up her house, corrals the daughters-in-law and they start their journey to Bethlehem.

Now the travel part is the part everyone knows, the “your people will be my people and your God will be my God” speech, but so much more was going on here. Naomi was broken and in her brokenness, she wanted to be alone to wallow in it.  I’m getting this image of pigs rolling around in the mud; the purpose is to be covered in it. This was true for Naomi, she was covered in her grief and brokenness. I would assume that Orpah going back to Moab probably just added to it. I could just hear her internal rant, ?see, even the daughters that God gave me are running away. God doesn’t want me to be happy, if he did, I wouldn’t be in this mess, and I wouldn’t have lost her too.? ?Naomi did not realize that in her grief, she was pushing those around her away. Luckily, Ruth is tenacious, not letting Naomi walk this road alone.

Now, here is where this story takes a bend. It’s been roughly two weeks that Naomi and Ruth have been traveling. ?Naomi has had plenty of time to think about how bad her life is, so much so, that when she reached the gates of Bethlehem and her family sees her, she fusses at them and tells them she is no longer Naomi, which means pleasantness, that now, she’s Mara, meaning bitter. Oh boy, was she bitter and she blamed God for it.

Remember I said this was a modern-day tell? That right there was it, how often do we look at all that is going on around us, the setbacks or miss-steps and grow bitter? How often do we sit in that bitterness and blame God for it? All the stinking time. We are just like those pigs, and just like Naomi, wallowing in self-pity and frustration, calling everyone we know, telling them how much life sucks and blaming God; we are changing our name to Mara.

Yet, as time progressed, Naomi saw something that we often miss: she saw God’s hand moving. She saw how God opened a door of provision for her and Ruth, she saw God allowing a connection between Ruth and Boaz, and she saw God making a way where there seemed to be no way. When Naomi stopped focusing all of her attention on herself and actually took a step back, she was able to see with a new set of eyes. Kind of like when you get glasses for the first time and everything just seems to come into focus.

Naomi didn’t understand why things were happening the way they did, she just saw that everything she held dear had been taken from her. But God was doing something bigger, God had a plan, He just needed Naomi to trust Him. In the midst of Naomi’s biggest heartbreak, how would she have known that she would be in the lineage of the Savior of the World?

So how often do you look at a situation and say, it is how it is, it’s never going to get better or God doesn’t care about me, or God must be punishing me for something? Sister, let me tell you, God is not punishing you, He is preparing you, and He is still writing your story. You may not see it now, you may never see it, but your reaction to your situation will determine your destination. When we hold onto bitterness instead of trusting that God is at work, that is all we are, bitter. But when we just stop, that is when God can do his thing. We may not understand why God allowed certain things to happen, but we can rest in the knowledge that He is working it for our good, that’s what it’s like to be brave; so don?t be Mara, just be you.

Hooray for Naomi and hooray for YOU.