Resolve. It’s time to get a job. Put action to the traction.

Day 13

Ruth 2:2a

And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.”


When my family and I arrived in the United States so many years ago, I remember that the first thing both my parents and my older sister did was look for a job. Because of my baby sister’s illness, when we landed, my mother was the last. As soon as my sister got well, I remember one day that my mother got up early in the morning and said, “I’m going out, and I will not return until I have a job.” Needless to say, those were the days of no cell phones, so it was scary for us. She did not speak the language and did not know the city. She did not drive either, so she depended on public transportation and the goodness of others. She had no idea what kind of neighborhoods she would have to go through to get to her final destination, the beach strip where all the hotels were. By 8:30 p.m. that evening, we were ready to call the police when she came through the door with a smile on her face and said, “I got a job. I start Monday.”

Reading this verse reminded me of my mother a bit. It made it easy to imagine Ruth, a Moabite in Judah, a stranger in Bethlehem, waking up that morning and telling her mother-in-law, “I am going to get a job, and I will not come back until I find one.”

Being ready and willing to work is a wonderful virtue. Work is a privilege. It is God-given. The ability to work is not something to be taken for granted. God told Adam to take care of the garden, His garden and then gave him Eve to help him. We all have a garden to tend to. It could be a career, a family, a calling, or any combination of the three.

Don’t think that because you have one and not the other, you are any more or less valuable than the rest. That is the beauty of it all. Our God is a God of diversity, and our gardens are all different, and all just as beautiful. Whether you are a successful career woman or a housewife, God has put you there for a reason. Together they form God’s ultimate garden. Whether you have your own children or take care of other people’s children. Whether you have a husband or marriage has not come your way. Whether you have a successful career or struggle to make ends meet. They all have their challenges and their benefits. Look for them and you’ll discover that they were right under your nose all the time. Make the best of them. Use them for the benefit of others and the Kingdom. God has placed you where you are. He has brought you here to tend to your corner of His garden, just like He brought Ruth to Bethlehem. Whatever you need to do, #getittogethergirl, let God guide you and go before you. Make the decision, get the job.

Father, I know that the most difficult step is the first. But you are my strength and my fortress. Help me. Let me go out there, to that scary world that I don’t understand, and help me do what I need to do. In your name, I’ll rise up, get it together, and go for it, amen.

 

My reflections:

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Luke 9:23

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