"And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?" -2nd Kings 5:13Naaman the leper is one of my favorite Old Testament stories. And I've been thinking about the government recommendation to eat less (from yesterday's blog), relative to Naaman's plight.
Naaman is an army general who wants to be cured of his leprosy and is insulted when Elisha sends a servant out to tell him to bath in the river Jordan 7 times. No magic potions, no complex surgery, no pomp and circumstance, just a remedy that Naaman himself needed to perform.
The story is found in 2nd Kings Chapter 5 and sure enough, after Naaman whines about the simplicity of Elisha's method (among other things), he does bathe in the Jordan River and his leprosy is cured.
So, while it feels more challenging for me to "eat less" than for Naaman to "bath 7 times" both guidelines are rooted in the person (Naaman or myself) ultimately being the one with the control over an ailment. Even though we'd both prefer a fancier diagnosis or plan of attack that doesn't involve something that sounds so, well,... simple.
In fact, I think this analogy, this concept of a basic or a simple approach holding our answer/solution, is manifest in my life in temporal and spiritual ways over and over again. And, by simple I don't mean "easy," I mean "not complicated."
But, like Naaman, I generally act like I'd be willing to do something greater, so... why am I not willing to do something simple! Just "food" for thought!
