THE PLAN & THE COMPLAINT

 2 Kings chapter 5.

Naaman's life was all good, except for this one thing:  Naaman was a leper.  He had a chronic, incurable skin disease that was going to destroy his body and kill him.  But other than that, everything was fine.

Naaman heard that he could get help at church, so he went to visit the Reverend Pastor Prophet Elisha in Israel.  He even brought something for the offering--- this one time.

But Elisha didn’t even give Naaman a chance to sit in his office and tell his story.  Instead Elisha referred Naaman to the Jordan River with instructions to go through 7 cycles of full body wash-rinse-and-repeat.

Naaman was NOT happy. 

He stormed out of the church lobby.  His tires left a pair of black streaks in the church parking lot as he burned rubber in disgust.  He went off to his boys in the back seats of the Tahoe.

Scripture says it this way: But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will 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 heal the leprosy.’ “ and on and on he went. (2 Kings 5: 11)

…So he turned and went away in a rage. (2 Kings 5: 12)

One of Naaman’s boys, a guy who worked for him, leaned over from the passenger seat, …spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” (2 Kings 5: 13)

Naaman calmed down and he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. (2 Kings 5: 14)

He was cured.

Did the waters cure Naaman?  No.

God cured Naaman.

But God only delivered the cure when Naaman obeyed the plan.

We come to God (or to church) for help, for a cure for what ails us?  And when things go the way they’re supposed to we get an answer from the Lord.  Sometimes God speaks to us through the primary pastor, reverend, preacher, prophet, apostle, or bishop of the church.  Sometimes, the answer comes some other way.

But the answer isn’t always, “Here.  Here, let ME immediately fix your problem for you.”

Sometimes the answer is, “Here.  Here is the plan  for YOU to follow to correct the problem for (or in) yourself.”

And that’s when we storm away and kick rocks on our way out of the parking lot.

“That ole sorry, preacher!”

“They supposed to be so Christian, but they can’t help nobody!”

“Who do they think they are, telling me what to do?” 

“I knew I shouldn’t ‘ve even come here.  I shoulda gone down the street.”

“Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?”(2 Kings 5: 12)

Why did Naaman have to go through all of that running around and spend all that time washing and whatever?

I don’t know why, but that WAS the plan God gave him.

He could obey God’s plan and get better, or he could complain about God’s plan and get sicker.

What plan did God give you when you showed up looking for help?

How you comin’ with that?

Too much trouble?

Takes too long?

You got better things to do?

O.K.  Well, you can either obey God’s plan and get better.

Or you can complain about God’s plan and get sicker.

You can whine about  the church or the pastor could have done; but if God didn’t tell them to waive their hands over the place/ relationship/ illness/ bill and call on the Lord then no amount of “decreeing and declaring” is going to make it better.  Just because they didn't please you doesn't mean they didn't obey God.

If you went to them for help from the Lord, maybe that's what you got----- even if it wasn't the way you wanted to get it.  The church did it's part.  Now, you have a choice:

Obey God’s plan and get better, or complain about God’s plan and get sicker.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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