The author of Ruth begins the book with some "background" information—a famine, a move to a foreign land, death. We usually skip over this stuff to get to the "good stuff," namely, the "romance" between Ruth and Boaz. This week, we paused to give voice to Naomi's grief and bitterness in the midst of horrific loss. We believe that she models an important and (very) human emotion, one that should be discussed more in the Church.

the restoration project. Joshua James. 11 June 2017.

*In the introduction, I (Josh) made the claim that because most of us are unfamiliar with famine. We aren't an agrarian society, so we just go to the store to buy our goods. While that may be true, I failed to acknowledge the reality, even in our community, that many people know (all too well) about hunger. Let us not forget, and let us not be actionless.