SIMPLE THINGS

Let us reflect on the story of Naaman the Syrian. He was the commander of the army of Syria. He was a great and respectable man because he had won many battles that pushed Syria on top of the world in their own generation. But Naaman had a problem: he was leprous. Naaman had a little maid he had captured during one of their raids in Israel. It was the little girl that informed Naaman that he could be healed through the prayer of Elisha. Naaman set out to meet Elisha. All along he would have been imagining that the prophet would conjure something from heaven or do some sort of demonstration in the air. But he was highly disappointed when first, the prophet did not even come out to see Naaman, but sent his servant to meet him: and secondly for telling him to bath seven times in the river Jordan. He mused, “behold , I thought he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper” (2 kg 5:11).

Elisha’s prescription looked too natural for Naaman to be real. Naaman’s mind couldn’t capture what was so special about bathing in the river. He had been doing that before. In his mind, he discarded the idea and went home disappointed.

 Human beings are in the habit of making things difficult. We are in the habit of not accepting simple things. Assuming that Elisha had asked Naaman to bring seven men’s head, he would have conveniently done that without complaining. But the complicatedness of a thing doesn’t guarantee its effectiveness. Naaman continued in that moody disposition until his servants told him, “my father, if the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when he says to you ‘wash and be clean?”

The intervention of his servant touched his heart and he decided to comply. As he dipped himself into the Jordan seven times, his body was clean again.

Simple things can sometimes be powerful. When God created the world, it was a simple beautiful place. But human beings have made it complicated. The spiritual journey is a simple one, there is no need to make it difficult. Simple staeps of faith will yield unbelievable results. Simple prayers can produce big miracles. Sin and disobedience bring confusion into everything. There is no need to try to complicate yourself if God has made you simple.