Once upon a time,
there was a commander of the army of the king of Syria.
He was a really great guy and a honorable man and very important.
He had one problem.
He was a leper.
The Syrians had gone out on a raid
and brought back a captive from Israel.
She was a young girl and she waited on Naaman's wife
hand and foot.
One day, she said to Naaman's wife,-let's call her Lindsay,
just for the fun of it-
"Lindsay. Where I come from, there is a great man of God.
He could heal your husband."
So, Naaman went and told the king of Syria about it
and being his friend, the king sent a letter to the king of Israel.
"Here is my servant Naaman. Heal him or else."
Something like that.
The king of Israel freaked out and said,
"Good grief! Am I God?
Who am I to heal?
He must want to start a fight with me."
And he tore his clothes in the agony of frustration
and probably very real fear.
Elisha heard about it and said,
"What's wrong? Why are you tearing your clothes.
Send him to me and he'll know that there is a prophet in Israel."
So, Naaman went to Elisha's house by way of his horse and chariot.
Elisha stayed in the house, perhaps drinking his tea and reading a book.
He sent a messenger to the door.
The messenger said, "Go to the Jordan river
and wash in it seven times,
and then you will have flesh that is clean."
Naaman was not happy with this bit of instruction.
He said, "I told myself that Elisha would come out to me
and call aloud to the Lord his God,
and wave his hand over the place,
and the leprosy would be gone!
I could have washed in other rivers closer to me
and they are better than the waters of Israel!"
And he was enraged.
But his servants talked some sense into him
saying, "If he asked you to do something great or complicated
you would have had no problem in doing it.
This is simple.
Why not do as he says?"
So, Naaman humbled himself and said, "Okay. I'll go."
And he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan
and just as Elisha said,
his flesh was completely restored.
It looked as smooth and as clean as a child's skin.
And he returned to Elisha with all of his aides
and said to him,
"Now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel,..."
which is actually an interesting perspective if you take the time to think about it.
The story goes on.
Greed complicates the beautiful ending.
And leprosy follows the descendants of Gehazi forever.
Read about it in 2 Kings, Chapter Five.
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Sometimes,
we have a great need.
It can be emotional, spiritual, physical, financial-
you name it.
We go to the Source of All Help
and we have in our minds how He will help us.
We think,
"If our child can just hang out with this group of people,
they will influence him for good, and he'll be okay."
Or, "When the new pastor comes, maybe he'll have the gift of healing,
or his wife will speak a word over me,
and I'll be delivered from this problem."
Or,"Maybe I'll win a sweepstakes and be set for life."
And all that may be true.
But what if we came to God and asked for help and healing
and didn't lose sight of Him during the healing process.
What if we stopped putting our trust in the dramatic
calling out to God and the waving of the hand?
What if we waited for His help,
keeping our eyes on Him,
and obeying Him in the simple things,
like "washing in the Jordan seven times"
or forgiving our enemies,
or eating healthy foods
or anything else He may tell us to do
that seems too simple.
I told Phil about this story on the phone
and he told me a story also.
He had just met a man named Dave.
Dave is the picture of health
and is a body builder.
He had a brain tumor
and to take it out,
they peeled back his face,
cut out the tumor,
and cauterized the arteries/veins,
and sewed his face back down again
using hundreds of stitches.
Then he was able to come home to recuperate.
One day he sneezed.
And the cauterized veins burst open.
He began bleeding from his wounds,
his nose, and around his jawline where his stitches were.
He called his neighbor who was a Baptist minister.
And then the ambulance came and took him to the hospital.
They couldn't stop the bleeding.
They shoved gauze up his nose and on his face,
breaking open the hundreds of stitches.
The doctor was on his way but it would be another 30 minutes until he arrived.
The Baptist minister came into his room
and called out to God.
"God! If you can do anything for this man,
do it now!"
("If you can" is supposedly not the world's greatest faith prayer.)
And, the bleeding stopped immediately.
When the doctor arrived,
the crisis was over.
He stitched him back up again.
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We want to put God in a box.
We want to have a formula.
But God is God
and we are not.
God does not have to do things in a complicated dramatic way.
He can.
But He doesn't have to.
We could learn a thing or two from God.
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