What Do I Overlook?
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This is Part 3 of a 4 part series. If you missed last week’s word-offering, you might want to begin there before continuing here.
Last week we wrestled with the question: What Do I Want? Donna rolled out the red carpet for three beautiful souls who walked the earth long ago, but whose stories we still treasure to this day. Three women, Ruth, Abigail and Esther, were people — not characters — real people with real desires and hopes but what they wanted is not why we read their stories today. What they didn’t have was not the point — what they wanted was not allowed center stage… for these three women chose to surrender their plans and trust God with what would come next.
Today we will pick up where we left off in each of the stories but this time with a new question for our minds to ponder: What do you overlook that you already have?
As we venture deeper into this holiday season, so much is thrust in front of us causing desire for more to swell within and weakening our ability to see what we already have. We see what others hold and we can’t help but crave a little too. We see what others are getting to do or what they aren’t having to do, and envy’s roots stretch a little more. We pull out society’s scale, and find ourselves wanting. Sadly, we can get so caught up in looking at the lives of those around us, that we lose sight of what God is doing in our own lives. Our glancing to and fro leaves us leaning into the world for guidance, grace and gratification — a practice that will pull us further and further away from our place beside Him.
Ruth is a woman who came from Moab, a place decorated with fake gods holding hollow guidance…so when she married into a Jewish family and began to understand the love of a good God…she refused to go back to the way she once knew.
We read in Ruth 1:15-16
“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Ruth, despite the circumstances she found herself in — circumstance brought on by the loss of another — did not overlook what God was doing nor how He had equipped her to do what needed to be done. She chose to leave the life she had known with its false gods and remain with Naomi, following her to Bethlehem where Ruth began gleaning in the fields as a means to provide. Regardless of this dangerous, and by society’s standards, demeaning work, Ruth did not overlook the work she was called to do and as a result found favor in God’s eyes.
Ruth could have followed in her sister-in-law’s footsteps and remained in Moab…she could have whined with demands that her mother-in-law share the workload…Ruth could have left Naomi to fend for herself. There are so many ways this story could have landed differently but here we are still reading about a young woman named Ruth because she did what the world she came from least expected — she reached for the one true God.
We see this same faith in our next leading lady, Abigail. If you missed last week’s introductions, Abigail was the wife of a wealthy man named Nabal, a name meaning “fool” and a fool he was. Nabal showed immense disrespect to David — the same David we remember as King David but this happened in the years prior to his reign. David was so overcome with anger that he prepared his men to storm the grounds of Nabal’s home and kill all of the men, servants included. While Nabal was getting drunk, oblivious to the danger about to befall them…a servant ran to Abigail. How did she respond?
We read in 1 Samuel 25: 18-19
Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.”
Abigail, despite the circumstances she found herself in — circumstances brought on by the foolishness of another — did not overlook what God was doing nor how He had equipped her to do what needed to be done. What if Abigail had looked around at how others were reacting to this horrifying news and decided to freak out and get drunk with Nabal? What if Abigail chose to be afraid and hide? What if Abigail loaded up the donkey and high-tailed it out of there?
Well…we wouldn’t be reading about a woman named Abigail and the innocent blood of many mixed in with one fool would have been shed. But thankfully we are still reading about her today because Abigail did not overlook the work she was called to do and as a result found favor in God’s eyes.
We see this same strain of bravery in our final story, the story of Esther. We know Esther was plucked from her Jewish home, a home she loved and placed in the harem of a pagan king. Esther would later find favor with the king and become his new queen. After becoming queen, news reached her from her cousin Mordecai about a plot to kill the Jews, her own people.
“For such a time as this.” I’ve seen this printed on t-shirts, coffee mugs, posters and plastered all over social media…but these words weren’t originally printed by some genius marketing company…no they came from a man desperately hoping his young cousin would not overlook what God was doing nor how He had equipped her to do what needed to be done. Mordecai loved his cousin dearly and would never want harm to come to her…however…he also knew that Esther had been called into something greater than this fallen world would want her to see. And so he spoke, and she heard him.
We read in Esther 4:15-16
Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
Esther, despite the circumstances she found herself in — circumstance brought on by the evil of another — did not overlook what God was doing nor how He had equipped her to do what needed to be done. Queen Esther found favor in God’s eyes and the Jews did not perish as those plotting had intended.
So what of us today? We can all agree these women are incredible — but how does this fit into our lives today? How can hearing their stories encourage us to reach for more of Jesus?
Challenging circumstances hit each one of their lives differently and challenging circumstances hit us still to this day. But when hard seasons come, how are we going to choose to respond? When the struggles this life will undoubtedly throw at us hit, what will our next move be?
The ways of this world will urge you to look at “whatever you don’t have” to patch the crater formed by circumstances…
But things like
fear of the future…
pain from the past…
uncertainty in the present…
will always remain unless we fix our eyes on what we have — — — that darkness really wants us to overlook.
Hear these words spoken by God in Isaiah 41:10
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
These life giving bread crumbs lead us to more truth spoken by Jesus in Matthew 6:25-33
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
In the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and seasons there after, may we not overlook the gift of our Heavenly Father. His presence, His protection, His provision is waiting for your eyes to look to Him — waiting for your hands to reach for Him — waiting for your heart and soul to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.
