“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.” Ruth 1:20

No one on our block likes “Cathy.” And that includes me. Cathy is a widow. A mean widow. She’s mean because she’s bitter that God took her husband at a young age after a long, debilitating illness. “My husband was a wonderful, caring man. But look at what God did to him,” she complained to one neighbor. Cathy’s bitterness has turned her into a hermit. In the past year I’ve seen her outside her home maybe three times…in her pajamas…in the afternoon.

For a while after her husband died, neighbors did nice things for her. They called her to offer their condolences. She didn’t answer the phone. They sent her cards. She didn’t acknowledge them. They mowed her lawn all spring and summer after the funeral. She couldn’t bring herself to say thank you. One neighbor even took down some ugly fencing in her front yard for her–really just three iron rods with wires draped across them for about five feet.

Actually, that did get a response. But not the kind one would hope for. What was meant to be an act of thoughtfulness sent Cathy into a maniacal rage. Not once, but three different times she reamed her neighbor out for taking the “fence” down without asking her permission. She had a point, I guess.

Disgust spread through the neighborhood the way the aroma of rotting garbage permeates a hot garage. Soon, her neighbors devised a plan. They would stop mowing Cathy’s lawn and when the weeds got too high, they would complain to the city and it would fine her. That would force her to hire someone to mow her lawn.

And that’s where I came in. I was new to the block and hadn’t gotten the back story on Cathy. I had just seen the ambulance showing up at her home down the street from time to time. A year later I noticed her lawn getting quite high. No one was mowing it. So I asked around and learned about “the plan.”

I met with one of Cathy’s immediate neighbors and told him I thought we should keep trying. We decided we would resume mowing her front lawn, alternating with each other every other time. That worked all last year, but when spring came this year her neighbor got tired and gave up. So now I’m the only one mowing Cathy’s lawn. Once a week I dutifully march my lawnmower, weed wacker and leaf blower down the street and complete my task.

And guess what. Nothing has happened. I did finally meet Cathy in front of her home…in her pajamas. I had been mowing her lawn all year and she finally came out to get her newspaper while I was there. But other than actually meeting her, nothing has changed.

The thought that nothing ever will change with Cathy has crossed my mind. But I’ve decided that, no matter what, I’m going to continue mowing her lawn–for years if necessary. The reason is because I am learning that the one thing Cathy needs the most, to be loved with covenant-keeping love (hesed love the Old Testament calls it), can be publicly demonstrated with a lawnmower, a weed wacker and a leaf blower.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you know anyone who is bitter? What caused them to become bitter?
2. Do you enjoy being around this person?
3. In what ways is God calling you to show this person the kind of love Ruth showed to Naomi (hesed love)?