Glory!

“Now the war is not over, victory isn’t won And we’ll fight on to the finish, then when it’s all done We’ll cry glory, oh glory!” John Legend, Glory – Selma soundtrack.

Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” Ruth 1:20-21

I think we all can testify to such times where we felt life has given us just TOO MUCH to bear. I mean, IF ONE MORE THING HAPPENS, I’M GONNA LOSE IT, kind of thinking. An I can’t take much more of this mindset. A “Lord, please take this cup away from me,” mentality. And then it happens, that last straw comes along that breaks us and we want to give up. Who wouldn’t entertain the idea, given the obstacles? Ah! But to want to give up versus actually do it? No. We cannot. To give up is to die, mentally and physically. May God grant us the means to persevere through each and every one of our calamities. Pray against such troubles, yes. But also pray for endurance to weather the storm because trying times will surely come. So we cannot give in to our circumstance.

We pick up Naomi’s story at a point where she was about to give up because she felt she’d been dealt a harsh blow by God. It was a humiliating end to what began with such promise. Due to the famine in Israel, her entire family had relocated to Moab to improve their situation. Hopes were high. Her boys married local girls – good women and good wives to their husbands, who developed a loving relationship with their mother-in-law. For a time, things must have looked really good. Then tragedy struck. First, Naomi’s husband died. Then, both of her sons. Without a man to provide for her, Naomi would be reduced to begging or worse. She looked at her situation and named herself, in response to her disaster, Mara or bitter. She felt justified so she complained and wallowed in misery. Life had beaten her down.

But Job posed this question during his affliction, “Will we only take good from His hand?” Up till the time of his trial, Job had lived a blessed life. God had given him everything a person could want: wife, family, prosperity. Yet when disaster struck, Job acknowledged that since all he had ever received came from God, it was God’s to take away. He came into this world naked and couldn’t take any of this with him anyway, Job said. In other words, I’m not going to bless God ONLY when He blesses me! I’m going to look for God in the midst of my test because He is surely in it, orchestrating a way out even as I sit in my wretched despair. I will wait for my change to come, because God is faithful, this I know. God will deliver us from destruction and the plots of the evil one. I will trust him even in, especially in, times of adversity.

It’s hard; it’s REALLY hard sometimes to look up when you have been handed a bad hand. I am reminded also of Abraham, whose name was changed to reflect the promise of who he would become: Father of many nations. He led a blessed life, too, yet along the way he suffered setbacks and events that would try his faith. His new name would have become a beacon lighting the way, and a constant reminder that his present situation was not his destination. Whatever happened, no matter what it looked like, his seed would be as numerous as the stars. Meanwhile, his wife, Sarah, was taken away and married off TWICE (still shaking my head at that one) to men more powerful than Abraham. He lied and said Sarah was his sister, to preserve his life. He had a son, outside of his marriage, but at his wife’s insistence. Then, he had to put away this son because Sarah couldn’t handle the competition with her own son. That’s just a few of his trials, yet at the end of his life he could say that God had been faithful. Abraham’s wife was restored to him both times, with interest, LOL! And of the son he had to put out, God also made a great nation. Abraham’s account, at his journey’s end, was better instead of bitter.

And so is the account of Naomi. Thankfully, the new name she took on did not determine her future. Her daughter-in-love, as one of my friends frequently calls her son’s wife, had such a heart for Naomi that she could not abandon her to face her circumstance alone. Ruth couldn’t find it in her to go back, take a new husband, and live in comfort and ease while Naomi faced a life of certain poverty, alone in Israel. Ruth stood by Naomi and refused to leave her side, linking her own success and failure to her adopted mother. When Ruth married Boaz, a wealthy relative of Naomi’s deceased husband, their way became prosperous once more. Ruth bore her new spouse a son, making Naomi a grandmother. In the end, despite the detours along the way, Naomi wound up living up to her original name. When God restored her good fortune, she found that life could be pleasant, indeed.

Today, I look for God – no, I already see Him – in my present struggles. Things may sometimes seem dire, but I see you Lord. You designed me, and all of us, to be made better (not bitter) with each passing trial. And they DO pass! I know that you have a good, happy ending for my life, too, according to Jeremiah 29:11. I claim your promise: my latter shall be greater. I’m made of and for better things. A cake is made better by the beating, as are scrambled eggs by the whipping. And so are we. We can become better because of our trials. Though my mother meant to name me after her favorite cousin, Gloria, somehow it became Loria, instead. But I count this as a happy mistake and I claim my name according to my future. It’s a derivative of Laurel (as in the victory wreath) and Gloria (as in give HIM the glory). And I WILL live up to my name. Yes, I will. I know what tragedy looks like, Lord. Now show me Your Glory.

Be blessed,

Loria