Running To Reality

I wanna begin our time together this morning in a way that might seem a little bit odd.

We're gonna be looking at the book of Ruth in a series we're titling, Mercies in the Shadows.

And Naomi and Ruth, the two leading ladies in this story, they have their worlds completely shattered.

They lose everything.

And they're trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and get back to normal.

And what we're gonna see is that they begin to discover hope and healing and redemption through God's mercies in the shadows.

And I think that's something that you and I could both use a little love right now, hope, healing, and redemption.

Because the reality is we all live in this stricken world and we've all lost something.

Maybe it was relatively mild what we lost.

Some of us have lost far more substantial things, jobs, our health, maybe even a loved one or a friend.

And when we experience loss, we also experience grief.

There's no question.

We face grief.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't like grief.

I don't want to feel it.

I don't want to deal with it.

I try to ignore it.

That's my basic instinct.

But the reality is we are all grieving.

As a city, as a world, we are grieving.

And we have to face that reality square in the face.

We need to see grief, feel it, experience it, and invite God into our grief if we're ever going to make it through the darkness and to the dawn.

And here's what I know about grief, and you know this too.

That grief can turn us bitter and hard or it can make us soft and tender.

Everything hinges on what we do with God's mercies in those dark shadows of our times and our lives.