Transformation in the New Year
Church
‘Time in the Word’ By Clayton Adams
Transformation of a person can happen over a period of years or in the blink of an eye.
Naomi was a woman who had two transformations. One transformation sent her into the depths of despair and depression and the other restored her with a renewed zeal for life and love. Her story is amazing.
I meet people who live with daily physical and emotional pain. Many have had their joy of life stolen by loneliness, despair and death. Loneliness and despair are dark clouds, to many they are “the valley of the shadow of death.” It is in this valley we meet Naomi.
Naomi, her husband Elimelech, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion moved from Bethlehem to a land named Moab. After Elimelech died, their sons, Mahlon and Chilion married Orpah and Ruth and lived for ten years before both Mahlon and Chilion died (Ruth 1:2-5).
Neither Mahlon and Chilion had children and this left Naomi with her two daughters in-laws and no one else. Naomi become depressed, lonely and feeling sorry for herself. Who could blame her? Lonely, no income, bereft of family and in her culture, no future. This was the first transformation.
Are you depressed? You are not alone. Naomi was not the only person in the Bible to become depressed. Elijah, the great prophet was depressed and asked God to “take my life…” (1 Kings 19:4).
Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus became so depressed and so sorrowful that he killed himself (Matthew 27:5).
Depression, “the blues,” call it what you will, every human is susceptible to the feelings of helplessness in life. Sickness, death, financial losses, deprived of the physical and emotional presence of people we love can transform and turn even the proudest and strongest of people to depression. Naomi, losing her husband and two sons became depressed, but God did not leave her in despair.
Another transformation was already on the way and it was to come to her through her daughter in-law Ruth (God uses the lives of others to transform people).
Naomi urged her two daughter in-laws to go back to their respective families saying, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.”
Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept” (Ruth 1:8-9). But the women resisted the urge to leave.
Finally, Naomi says, “Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and bear sons, would you wait until they were grown? Would you refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is harder for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone against me” (Ruth 1:12-13). Can you identify with Naomi and her feelings?
It is human to blame God for the evil in our lives. Hundreds of times I have heard, “Why did God allow this to happen to me?” “God could have stopped this from happening, why didn’t He?”
Answers do not come, if at all. Searching for answers we find someone to blame like Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:12-13). But a man named Job showed us how to live through the terribleness of life.
Job said, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?”
Through all of Job’s losses God pays a great compliment to Job, “In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10).
Naomi was distraught, depressed and changed her name to reflect how she felt, we read, “So they (Naomi and Ruth) both went to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and the women (of Bethlehem) said, “Is this Naomi?” She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?” (Ruth 1:19-21).
Amid deep despair and misery Naomi changed her name to reflect her belief that God had dealt with her terribly. Naomi becomes Mara. Mara means “bitter.” Naomi believes that God was bitter and has acted bitterly towards her by allowing her husband and two sons to die. Naomi was desperately trying to reconcile unreconcilable events and feelings. Can you identify with Mara? I can.
We may live alone but God never leaves us lonely. God does allow us to go through long and torturous events and feelings, I do not suppose for a moment to know why, but He has His purposes, we read, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future..”
(Jeremiah 29:11). I know God allows bad things to happen and it is through these bad things that God does a work in our lives, He challenges our thinking, reveals Himself and transforms our thinking, understanding, beliefs and lives.
Ruth chose to stay with Naomi and it was through Ruth’s life that God transformed Naomi (Ruth 2:19-22) and this second transformation is the story of redemption and restoration by God in His timing.
Transformation often has its beginning in the trials and the anguish of life and only God can work such transformations through the despairs of life. If you are surrounded by anguish and afflictions, God is already working a transformation for your benefit. Are you ready to be transformed?
Clayton Adams has a message of faith he would like to share with the community. He would also like to hear from you.
E-mail him at claytonpadamslll@ gmail.com.
