Imagine moving to another state, far away, due to tough economic conditions. Maybe not so hard to imagine these days. Once there, one of your sons falls in love and gets married. Then the other son gets married. Life is good.

But then tragedy strikes and your spouse dies. It’s especially tough being so far from family and friends. It gets really bad when your son dies. And it goes from bad to worse when your other son dies.

Moving far from home. Spouse dies. Son dies. Other son dies. That’s all in the first five verses of the book of Ruth where we read about a ten year period in Naomi’s life.

When tragedy strikes, it’s easy to become anxious and afraid, but when one after another hits, it’s easy to become disillusioned, discouraged and disappointed with God. From there, it’s not far from feeling bitter and cynical.

“Where are You, God?! Why won’t You do something?! Can’t You see what I’m going through?! Why are You against me?!”

And when He seems to do nothing, it’s easy to conclude that He doesn’t care or He’s not really good or isn’t living up to His promises.

Have you been there? Are you there now?

What can we do when circumstances aren’t going our way and life seems to be going from bad to worse? Is there anything we can learn from Naomi’s life?

Stay tuned.