2 Kings 5:1-14

A quick fix.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we found one?  It would be so much more convenient if solutions to the world’s ills, and our own, could be found in an easy formula, a shot in the arm, a wise proclamation, a savior.

Naaman, that mighty military commander, was looking for a quick fix to cure his leprocy and thought his wealth and influence would get it done.  He didn’t realize the path to healing would include a slave girl, his subordinates, a messenger from Elisha, and the Jordan River.

Seven dips in the Jordan.  A quick fix wouldn’t mind that.  One would be better, at most two.  Though skeptical something so easy could be effective, Namaan put his toes in to test the water and such audacity.  With each succeeding dip he, and we, learn there is no quick fix, no bright light, but the steady dipping into hope, facing obstacles, being discouraged, seeing some light, dipping back down again, in the same waters as the saints before us, with thoughts of giving up, then going in again, going deep, and at some point it’s not cold anymore, and clarity surfaces, and synchronicity appears, and solutions seem possible. It would be good to remember this story when we face our own world, to remember this once proud and impatient man who was healed one day, not by a quick dip in the Jordan, but through a process that took seven.