Stay in the Safe Zone

Learn to take risks. Be brave! Move out of your comfort zone. Push the boundaries. Get out of your boat! Great slogans and we hear them often but are they always good and for our good? Are there times when such thinking is dangerous and reckless?

It happened many years ago. Naomi, after a long absence, had returned to her hometown of Bethlehem, accompanied by her daughter-in-law Ruth whose young husband had died. Ruth was from Moab. Bethlehem was new to her. One day she went out to a field to gather some barley for baking. She was a complete stranger in the field. The workers figured out who this new young lady was. When Boaz the owner arrived on the scene he asked about her.  The field manager told him: “She’s the one who came back with Naomi. She’s from Moab.”

Boaz had already heard about this young lady’s conversion to God, her faithfulness to her mother-in-law and her choice of Bethlehem over her homeland.

Boaz then speaks kindly to the stranger: “Ruth, I’ve heard your story and I can assure you that the Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come for refuge, I can assure you that He will bless you and keep you.”

He invites her back to his field to gather grain along with the other reapers. He promised her there’d be plenty of grain for her and lots of water to quench her thirst during the day. He also told her she’d be safe in his field. He had instructed the young male workers not to harass her in anyway and not to touch her roughly or with any sexual intent.

“Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter,

do not go to glean in another field or leave this one,

but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them.”

(Ruth 2:8-9)

Before Ruth returned the next day Naomi too cautioned her to make sure she stayed within the field of Boaz and not to try out other fields where she could be assaulted. One field was safe – the others were not. If she kept within the field markers established by Boaz, she would not only be kept safe, she would enjoy his generous provision.

In this context, slogans like learn to take risks and move out of your comfort zone and push the boundaries or get out of your boat are dangerous and reckless. Why would Ruth want to expose herself to unnecessary risks that could wreck and ruin her future? Why would she want to ignore the counsel of those who had her best interest at heart? Why would she want to go somewhere else if where she was offered her all she needed?

Boaz reminds us of our Lord Jesus Christ. His kindness and compassion to a stranger; his grace and generosity; his protection and care and the assurance of his continual provision and plenty.

Why would I ever want to go to the fields of the world, when Christ has assured me of His provision and protection? If I’m gathered to the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ in a New Testament assembly, why would I ever try to push the boundaries or get out of the boat or move out of such a zone? Choosing a career or taking a job that would take me far away from the protection of an assembly or from a circle of Christian friends to whom I feel accountable is like stepping outside the safe zone – the field of safety. A career that exposed me unnecessarily to the raw world of fame, pleasure and sin (breweries, drama, pornography enterprises, gambling, politics, sports, etc.) would be a very dangerous move for me. And if something is spiritually dangerous, wouldn’t it also be wrong?

If you are thinking of changing fields, re-think your plans on your knees before the Lord. Stay in the safe zone!