If you have ever been on any sort of crash-diet,

you have known what it's like to feel hungry. Personally, I can

handle feeling hungry in the day time. The hunger that gets me is

the one that comes at night. There is something especially

miserable about laying in bed, trying to get sleep, when all I can

think about is how empty my stomach feels at that moment. When your

stomach is empty, it's hard to think about anything else.

Sometimes, I will just lay there and think about how wonderful it

would be to have a full belly. Fullness is better than emptiness.

The book of Ruth is about this: fullness and emptiness. It's a

story of tragedy and misery. It's a story of fullness and delight.

During the month of August, we are going to do a mini-series on

this Old Testament book. And this Sunday, we will kick things off

by looking at Ruth 1. If you have ever felt that life was more apt

to be described as "empty" rather than "full," you will not want to

miss this very encouraging opening message.