2 Kings 5:1-15a
Rev. RICHARD:
Today I am joined by my kids Aimee and Jacob, and we are going to talk a little about something that’s really hard: accepting help.
We may be perfectly comfortable offering a helping hand to someone else. But when the roles are reversed, something changes. We hesitate. We make excuses. We tell ourselves we should be able to manage on our own. And sometimes, we struggle most when the help offered to us isn’t the help we expected.
The story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 offers us a glimpse of just how complicated receiving help can be.
Naaman is a powerful military commander. He has status, wealth, and influence. Yet he also has a skin condition that, for all his power, he can’t overcome. When he hears that a prophet in Israel might be able to heal him, he sets out with gifts and expectations of what the encounter will look like.
But things don’t unfold as he imagines.
AIMEE:
Naaman expects the prophet to do something amazing, right? Something big and dramatic?
Rev. RICHARD:
Exactly! But Elisha doesn’t even come out to meet him. Instead, he sends a messenger with pretty simple instructions: go and wash seven times in the Jordan River.
Naaman is furious. Like you said, he expected a dramatic encounter, a grand gesture from the prophet. He expected to be treated with the respect he thought his position deserved. And surely, he thinks, the rivers back home are just as good as the Jordan!
So Naaman turns to leave, ready to abandon the very thing he came seeking. He wants healing, but he wants it on his terms.
JACOB:
So, he misses out on getting healed because he doesn’t like how he’s supposed to do it?
Rev. RICHARD:
Almost! Fortunately, his servants intervene. They point out that if the prophet had asked him to do something hard, he would have done it. Why not try something easy? Naaman listens. He goes to the Jordan, washes, and is healed.
His healing begins when he becomes willing to receive.
There’s a lesson here that reaches well beyond the banks of the river Jordan. Sometimes, the greatest obstacle to receiving what we need is our insistence that we already know what it should look like.
We pray for guidance while refusing to consider advice that challenges our assumptions. We long for healing while resisting the difficult conversations or changes that healing requires. We ask for a new beginning while insisting that everything must happen the way it always has.
AIMEE:
Sometimes we don’t listen because we think we already know what’s best.
Rev. RICHARD:
I think that’s true for all of us. We can even do this with God. We develop an idea of how God should answer our prayers, how faith should work, or what renewal should look like. When the answer arrives in an unexpected form, we don’t recognize it. Or worse, we may dismiss it because it doesn’t fit our plans.
Humility invites us to loosen our grip on those expectations.
That doesn’t mean we must accept every piece of advice, agree with everyone who offers help, or abandon our own judgment. Humility isn’t about making ourselves small or assuming that others are always right. It is about recognizing that our perspective is limited, that we have more to learn, and that we cannot always meet every need on our own.
Sometimes humility means asking for help. Sometimes it means listening to someone whose experience is different from ours. Sometimes it means admitting that the way we’ve always done something may not be the best way forward.
AIMEE:
And sometimes it means accepting that the first step into something better may seem too ordinary to matter.
Rev. RICHARD:
That’s right! Notice that Naaman’s story doesn’t turn on a grand act of courage or an extraordinary display of faith. It turns on a decision to listen and try.
JACOB:
He just had to be willing to give it a try.
Rev. RICHARD:
Exactly! The river hasn’t changed. The instruction hasn’t changed. But Naaman’s willingness to receive has.
JACOB:
Maybe that’s our invitation this week. We need to be open to the possibility that help, wisdom, and even grace may come from somewhere we didn’t expect.
AIMEE:
Sometimes, the hardest part of receiving what we need
is letting go of the idea that we already know what it should look like.
Rev. RICHARD:
As we go through the week, here are a few questions to think about:
When have you found it difficult to accept help from someone else?
AIMEE:
Are there times when you have been so sure of what you wanted that you might have missed another possibility?
JACOB:
What might it look like to approach one situation this week with a little more humility and a little more openness?
Rev. RICHARD:
Let’s pray.
God of grace, give us humble hearts and open minds. Help us recognize when pride or expectation keeps us from receiving the help we need. Teach us to listen, to trust, and to remain open to the unexpected ways your grace enters our lives. May we have the courage to take the next small step, even when it isn’t the one we imagined. AMEN