Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
² And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
                                                                        -Ruth 2:1-2
 
Last week we read the opening chapter of Ruth, which was marked mostly by heartbreak and difficulty.  The chapter ended with Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi returning to Bethlehem (where Naomi was from) from the land of Moab (where Ruth was from).
 
Both women are widows and have very few options in their day for eking out a living.
 
Once they’ve settled in Bethlehem, Ruth proposes she go out to the grain fields to glean whatever grain she can during harvest time. This was a common practice for the poor, but not without its dangers. The fields were large and the gleaners were at the mercy of the men who worked them.
 
Ruth is impoverished and likely feeling displaced and disoriented, a foreigner arriving into a new, small community. She knows no one other than Naomi.  She could hole up and wall-off and hide.  Instead, she rolls up her sleeves and figures out what she might do to help them both survive.
 
In the midst of a situation Ruth never would have chosen for herself and in a season where it would have been easy to retreat in fear, Ruth takes small, faithful, bold steps into the world rather than trying to shield herself from the world. She will do so over, and over and over again.
 
Today, God’s Spirit is upon you to make you brave. To give you the courage to take small, faithful, bold steps down whatever paths that you’re avoiding or afraid of. Those paths might be dark, ominous,fraught with tensions and difficulties or they might just be unknown.
 
Whatever they are, today the Lord has given you his Spirit not so that you might duck and avoid, but that you might be strong and courageous. What might it look like to take your step today?
 
Take a minute to prayerfully consider if you’re avoiding something that you know you need to do. Ask God for a fresh filling of His Spirit to make you strong and courageous to take even just one step today down that path today.