Don’t Doubt – Be Determined To Move Forward On God’s Path For Your Life
Word-of-the-Day: ‘(15) “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” (16) 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 1:15-16)
There are times when some will tell you, as you are pursuing a goal, that it’s not worth the struggle or the effort, to quit. Sometimes we tell ourselves to stop, either in thought or by distraction. Later, sometimes many years later, we think back of what might have been had we stayed the course and achieved the goal we had desired to attain. I try not to live in regret, and though I have accomplished much in my life, there are things that are left undone, and will likely stay undone. Much of this comes from doubt, the doubt others have in you and doubt you have in yourself.
Doubt is a double-edged sword; it can stop us from doing bad things, giving us time to pause and think to allow us to reevaluate what we’re about to do. It can also stop us from doing what we should do, however. I wasn’t completely sold on joining the Army back in January 1982; I would be leaving, at eighteen, all that I had known. Though I was sure I would do well, I had flat feet and my eyesight was bordering on legally being declared blind from extreme near-sightedness.
Though strength and stamina weren’t an issue, would those two things derail me? What if I didn’t like the discipline the Army would invoke? Four years of a commitment to an eighteen-year-old is a lifetime; do I really want to take that much time out of my life? But the doubts I had were overcome with determination. I knew that I couldn’t stay in the Pittsburgh area as jobs were drying up; college at that time wasn’t an option and neither was bumming off my parents or working at minimum-wage. I was about to be married to my lifetime spouse so I needed to do something. So, I signed the papers while singing ‘Be All You Can Be’ and left for boot camp later that month.
After I decided to leave the Army, there were times of doubt, as well. After I had left the Army and was looking for work (I had a job lined up and was ready to go to work when it was ‘frozen’ and I couldn’t immediately start – a long story), I had several ‘you’re too qualified’, ‘you’re not qualified enough’, ‘we need more experience’ answers from companies I tested and interviewed for. My parents and many others told me to quit looking for electronic technical work, and apply for work in some of the mills and factories around the Pittsburgh area, or go back in the Army.
I was about to look down these paths, including reenlisting, but my mother-in-law pulled me aside and said, ‘Don’t give up, you have a skill that you trained for. Take your time and find a job that you want to work in.’ So, instead of giving up, I doubled down and finally after a couple of months got an interview for a contracting position in Norfolk, Virginia working at the US Atlantic Fleet headquarters on their data centers.
It didn’t pay much, but it got my foot in the door, and two years later I came to Sarasota for the job that launched the rest of my career, until I retired and now am serving the Lord where I can. (Ironically, the company that I had left the Army to go work for ‘unfroze’ and called me a couple of weeks after I started at Norfolk. ‘Thanks, but no thanks’, was my answer.)
Being determined and refusing to turn away due to doubt is a Godly trait and thanks to God (and in part to my ‘Ma-in-law’), this has helped me accomplish much in my life when it would have been so much easier to give up and do nothing. I would have been easier to stay in western Pennsylvania, and done nothing or very little, like many of those I knew did. I could have also stayed there after service, and been working for years in jobs I wouldn’t have liked and been miserable. I could have rejoined the military and perhaps not have had the opportunities I had. I also may not have been in the position to hear the Word of the Lord and commit to Him as I did living here in southwest Florida back in 1995.
Doubt and regret are something that we must not allow to creep in and take over the joy we have today. Understandably we may not always be happy in our current circumstances, but God has placed us where we are at for His reasons and plans. I am joyful and content that the Lord made a path for my spouse and I forty-four years ago, across the country and to where we are at now, here in Florida, to this moment in time where I can serve Him – writing this particular blogpost! Be joyful in your circumstance as well, and if that proves to be difficult, turn to the Lord and ask Him to find why you should have Joy in your life.
My life may not be the model, but there is one in the Bible. A greater example of determination over doubt is in Ruth of the Old Testament. We find Ruth, in the book named after her, living with her Jewish in laws in Moab; father-in-law Elimelek and mother-in-law Naomi. Ruth was married to their son Mahlon, and Orpah was married to their son Kilion. Then her father-in-law Elimelek passed away, followed by the death of the two sons, so the three women were all widowed. Naomi decided it was time to go back to Israel and her clan, and told her two daughters-in-law to go back to their homes. Orpah, though sad, listened and returned to her family in Moab, but Ruth decided to stay. Though Naomi was throwing shade and doubt on her, Ruth was determined and insisted on staying with Naomi.
Naomi, with Ruth in tow, returned to Bethlehem, where a relative of Elimelek, Boaz, had a farm where he grew grain. Ruth volunteered to gather the grain left behind, and Boaz made it a point to tell the men to leave her alone and ensure she could gather water as needed. Ruth provided food for herself and Naomi, and Boaz oversaw them for their well-being.
Boaz fell in love with Ruth, but before he could marry her, he had to ‘wheel-and-deal’ to buy Elimelek’s fields, and the right to marry Ruth. Boaz did so and he married Ruth. While this sounds like a ‘Hallmark movie’ moment, the truth is Ruth’s determination over the doubt that Naomi had initially given her, the doubt that chased away Orpah, and possibly her own doubt of giving up a life of known commodities in Moab for a life of uncertainty in Israel, paid off in finding love again with Boaz.
The story doesn’t end there; Ruth and Boaz had a son, Obed. Obed is the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David, who we know is the lineage of Judah’s kings, to include our Eternal King, the Kings of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus. Ruth’s determination over doubt, along with Boaz’s determination to marry her, was blessed by God to be part of the royal line that ends in Jesus! She could have said, ‘You’re right, Naomi. I’m a Moabite, and no one in Israel will want to marry me. I’ll just give up, go back home and do chores with my family in Moab.’ But God rewarded her determination with the love of Boaz and a dedication of her determination we can all learn from, by the accounts of the book that bears her name.
