In his book, Love Does, Bob Goff writes about “secretly incredible people.” These are people who “keep

what they do one of God’s best-kept secrets because the only One who needs to know, the God of the

universe, already knows.” They don’t talk much about what they do; they just do things. He says that if

you need a mission statement to be secretly incredible, this is it: BE AWESOME. But don’t put that

statement on a bracelet or a big sweatshirt – instead write that statement on your heart – and just go

about being awesome.

As I’ve been lingering in the first chapter of the book of Ruth, I have decided that perhaps Naomi is one

of those secretly incredible people – one that was quietly awesome. As she was loving her Moabite

daughters-in-law in their homeland, mentoring them, and demonstrating her love for the one true God,

she had no idea that she was pouring into one who would be included in the lineage of Jesus! She had

no idea that her faith was a bright light in the dark pagan world that was her home for ten years.

The Hebrew word for Naomi is “pleasant.” And for most of her life, that was an accurate description of

Naomi – pleasantly loving her husband, pleasantly raising her boys, pleasantly moving with the family to

Moab, pleasantly embracing her daughters-in-law. There must have been something quite engaging

about Naomi that caused her daughters-in-law to love her so much that eventually they both were

willing to leave their homeland to be with her.

Do you think perhaps Naomi loved those young women unconditionally even though they both had

worshipped pagan gods all their young lives? Do you think perhaps Naomi lived out the truth of her love

for her Creator – loving Him with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength -- rather than telling the girls all

the things they were doing wrong or trying to correct all the wrong-headed thinking they had

embraced? Do you think perhaps her genuine compassion for the girls opened their hearts to Truth?

We know that Naomi is not included in the lineage of Jesus, but that does not diminish the importance

of her life. She was just going about her days both in Bethlehem and in Moab being secretly incredible –

and being used mightily by the Almighty God. Are you willing to accept the same challenge to be secretly

incredible? Today take advantage of one opportunity to be awesome – and don’t tell anybody – not

even me! (I’ll just trust that you’re being awesome!)

By Judy Shrout

Judy is the wife of Tom, mother of Heather, mother-in-law of Jim, grandmom to T.J., Ainsley, and

Maggie, and grandmother-in-law to Piper.