HOW FAR WILL YOU GO?

Today's reading: Ruth

"But Ruth replied, Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. I will go wherever you go and live wherever you live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God." Ruth 1:16 NLT 

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the account of Ruth and her determined love for Naomi.

I can't even tell you how many weddings I have attended where this very verse was recited.

I know for a fact that every year in my Bible reading plan, I read of Ruth's heroic decision.

But this morning it hit differently.

It slapped me in the face. It poked me in the gut. It pricked my heart.

I am asking myself, after reading her account, how far will I go for a friend?

To the hospital to sit with them during a medical emergency?

To their bedside in an illness?

To the funeral home to mourn with them?

To my knees for an extended period of time? For a prodigal season? For a span of time when an addiction rears its ugly head? In good times? In bad times? In horrible times?

To the point of asking the hard questions--Are you right with the Lord? Is He your Lord and Savior? Are there any sins you need to take to Him--again, and again, and again?

Am I the friend that sticks it out, doesn't turn back, is there for the duration--and into eternity?