To do the work I do, you’ve got to be able to deal with a little bit of pain. After a long week on the job last week, I looked at my hands and saw where I had cut them climbing up and down a ladder all day everyday. I inspected my finger, which got accidentally smashed by a coworker during an install. I checked out my leg, which had a big cut on it caused by a tool and sharp object.
My job requires me to accept a simple truth: Sometimes, life is painful.
We all have difficult times in life. We’re all going to hurt at one point or another. If things are going really good for you right now, you should certainly enjoy that. But also, get ready. Because at some point, a trial is coming. It’s just inevitable.
I don’t like to endure pain, whether it’s the physical kind or the emotional kind, which can actually be a lot worse. The only thing I can really appreciate about pain is that it usually helps me learn a lesson, though it sometimes takes me two or three tries to finally get that lesson right.
None of us likes to admit it, but life is hard. There’s a story from the Bible that represents that truth all too well. It’s the story of Naomi, and it’s found in the book of Ruth.
We’re going to read Ruth 1:19-22 today. By this point, Naomi has gone through a lot pain. She’s lost her two sons. She’s lost her husband. One of her daughters-in-law has gone back home to her family. And now, she and her last daughter-in-law Ruth are returning to her hometown with nothing in the world but each other.
So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women 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 away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”
So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
When Naomi left her homeland, she was full. She had a husband, she had children, and she had hope. But now, she’s returning empty. She has nothing.
Not only is she empty-handed, but she’s also empty spiritually. She feels like God has turned His back on her. She says, “[T]he Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.” Naomi’s going through a lot of pain here, and she isn’t handling it very well.
Then there’s this special lady named Ruth who decides to stay with her. Even though Naomi doesn’t treat her very well and tries to send her away, Ruth stays by her side. We could all use a Ruth in our lives, couldn’t we? Ruth was a good friend to her mother-in-law and stood with her even when she felt completely empty on the inside.
When life isn’t going well, it’s easy to become empty spiritually. I get to a point when I’m in pain where I don’t want to talk to anyone. I don’t want to spend time with anyone. I just want to be alone.
And that can even apply to my walk with God. When I’m hurting, sometimes I want to run away from God and not spend any time with Him. It’s not good, but it does happen to me sometimes.
It’s easy when we’re empty to stay that way and not get full. But we don’t have to do that.
Just as Ruth stayed with Naomi through her darkest time, we have someone who will never leave us, and that’s Jesus. He loved us enough to go through the most difficult thing imaginable just so He could save us and be with us all the time.
He suffered so that we could be spiritually full, not empty. And that’s what He wants for each of us.
God wants us to be spiritually full all the time, and He’s made that possible for each of us. If your spiritual tank is empty, it’s not God’s fault; it’s yours. We can always become spiritually filled by spending time with Him and by trusting Him with whatever it is we’re dealing with.
That doesn’t mean we’re always going to be happy. We all go through things sometimes. But we don’t have despair; we don’t have to be like Naomi and walk around feeling empty all the time.
God is in control, and He’s going to take care of us. If we’ll follow Him, trust in Him, and spend quality time with Him, He’ll keep our spiritual tanks full.
It’s important to remember that as believers, this world is not our home. We’re just passing through on kind of an extended vacation here on earth. All of the pain and all of the troubles we go through will pass away one day when we get to spend eternity with God. Remembering that and trusting Him can help us stay spiritually full in a world that is constantly draining us.
Sometimes, in order to see God’s plan, we have to go through some difficult times. And when we see others who are hurting, we’re called to help them, the way Ruth did for Naomi and Jesus does for us. We can be that for somebody else who’s hurting, too.
It’s better when we’re going through hard times that we don’t let our spiritual gauges get empty. Once they’re empty, it’s hard to get them going again.
Have you ever let your car run out of gas, or maybe your lawn mower? Even once you fill it back up with fuels , it’s very difficult to get it started. Sometimes, you even have to prime it just to get it going. Our spiritual gauges are like that, too. If we let them run out, we will struggle to get them filled back up.
Some people let their spiritual gauge get empty, and then they walk away from God altogether. Naomi was nearly there, and she probably would have given up on her faith had it not been for Ruth. Ruth helped her get her spiritual gauge full once again.
And that’s what we all need to do when we start to feel spiritually empty. We have to allow God to fill us back up again.
So let me ask you: Are you full? Or are you empty?
Do you need to make a pit stop, spend some time with God, and allow Him to refill your spiritual tank? Because He’ll do it if you’ll just let Him.
I’d like to talk some more going forward about different ways we can make sure that we’re staying spiritually full, so be looking out for that. For now, though, it’s important that each of us check our spiritual gauges and make sure we’re not running on “E.” God wants to keep us spiritually full.
To your fitness!