by Grace Dowling
If one reads the book of Ruth and truly dissects it, they would see that the whole story is about Ruth’s faithfulness to God. She did not care that she would no longer have security in finding a husband. All she wanted was to follow the Lord, whom she had come to know through Naomi.
A few months ago, I heard a sermon on this topic, that Christianity should not be something of comfort. Do you think when Jesus came to earth, he was thinking it was going to be easy and comfortable? No, Jesus was killed on a cross.
Just like Jesus, Ruth decided to pick up her cross and bear it. She had no idea what was to come. All she knew was that she had turned away from her pagan gods and couldn’t go back to them.
So how does this tie into The Bucket Ministry and my story? Well, as many of you know, I am from Michigan. If someone would have told me a year ago that I would be going to Honduras on a mission trip and then living in Texas for two months, I probably would have laughed it off. Yet, here I am doing exactly that.
The only way that I can explain how I got here is through God and being okay with making decisions that would make me uncomfortable. It was God that gave me the ability to raise the money to go on a mission trip to Texas in March of this year. It was God that gave me the desire to look for an internship in Texas and for the first one that I found to be The Bucket Ministry. It was God that provided me with everything I told him I would need in order to be here: finances, a place to stay, a job and a working car.
Even though I was very uncomfortable with leaving everything I have ever known, I knew this was what God had in mind because he had provided all my needs. One thing I have come to realize about God is that my life is not in my control. God controls it, and when I let him do what he wants with me, I tend to do things I never thought I would be doing.
