A Loving Life

Here’s my first reread for 2023—A Loving Life by Paul E. Miller. It’s a non-fiction book that explores the biblical book about the deep friendship of Ruth and Naomi, a widow and her mother-in-law. As the subtitle indicates, what the book really does is teach us how to live in a world of broken relationships. It’s beautiful and challenging, all at the same time.

Here are some of the themes, excerpted from the introduction to the book:

“• Love. What is love? What is the cost of love? Why do we shy away from love? What does it mean to love when you get no love in return?
• Gospel. How does understanding the love that we see in the book of Ruth enrich and anticipate our understanding of the gospel, of God’s love for us? How is the gospel a journey?
• Community. How do we create community? What is the glue that keeps us together?
• Lament. How do you relate to God when he seems to have deserted you?
How does faith encourage us to lament? Why do we dislike the idea of a lament?
• Prayer. What does a praying life look like? Do we wait for God to act or do we act? What does it mean to live in a story?
• Femininity. What does it mean to be feminine? How do we survive and even thrive in a world (as this one was) dominated by men?
• Masculinity. What does a godly man look like? What characterizes him?
How do you combine gentleness and power?”

The author goes on to say, “The story of Ruth can transform you if you allow it to remap your own story and draw you into a life of love. In a world that is losing its capacity to feed our souls, I hope that the book of Ruth fills your soul, and then overflows into your life.”

I can’t recommend this book enough, and not just for widows and their mother-in-law’s. Lol! This book is for everyone who wants to learn to love well.