Great Expectations

“But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me!”
‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭5‬:‭11‬

But I thought –

Sigh.

I thought I’d be walking without my boot by now.

I thought I’d be stronger by now. Have better balance. Be – healed. Restored.

Back to ‘normal’.

The calendar says I’ve been given enough healing time. The calendar says I should be walking pain free.

Reality is a bit different.

After some ups and downs in my recovery from that slip on the ice way back before Christmas, life lately has been rather more down than up.

I was doing well. The team thought I was ready to return to my job. But being on my feet has had some pretty significant consequences.

My foot is nearly always swollen. My ankle is stiff and refuses to engage in my physio exercises. When I try walking, sharp pains stab me.

Seriously. I had Great Expectations.

That aren’t being met.

At all.

Naaman, buddy, I hear you.

You were afflicted by some sort of skin disease back in the day. You heard about Elisha, a prophet of God. You went to meet him, pack animals laden with treasures to pay said man of God.

You had Great Expectations.

Then you hit more down than up.

The man of God didn’t even come to the door when you arrived. He sent an underling to tell you to wash in the Jordan seven times.

The Jordan River.

Dirty. Dank.

Seriously.

You had expected him to do a whole song and dance and dramatic religious ceremony, perform for the entourage.

But no.

No song. No dance. No drama. No performance.

Elisha, in fact, was a No Show.

The text actually tells us that Naaman was in a rage. He was downright offended. He was leaving in a huff, when his honest and down to earth servants intervened.

“But his officers tried to reason with him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something very difficult, wouldn’t you have done it? So you should certainly obey him when he says simply, ‘Go and wash and be cured!’””
‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭5‬:‭13‬ ‭

Oh, they were gutsy, these unnamed heroes of old, risking the wrath of their master when he was already in a temper. But here they were, poking holes in the big man’s biggest weakness.

And it wasn’t his illness.

It went deeper than his skin.

See, his disappointment, his angst, his rage against the man of God wasn’t that he hadn’t healed him.

It was that he had expected something different.

He went in with preconceived ideas of who the man of God was. Who he was. Who God was, and how He would work.

He was putting God in a box.

And God doesn’t do box.

Naaman eventually followed the advice of his compatriots, and went and washed in the dirty river. And his simple act of faith had profound results.

“So Naaman went down to the Jordan River and dipped himself seven times, as the man of God had instructed him. And his skin became as healthy as the skin of a young child, and he was healed!”
‭‭2 Kings‬ ‭5‬:‭14‬ ‭

So. What are some of your Great Expectations?

What box are you putting God into?

Here’s the thing.

I’m only disappointed in my healing process because of my preconceived notions, a timeline I invented on my own.

Remove them, and I have lots of positives to be thankful for.

I am standing for longer periods of time.

I am more independent.

I took the chair out of the shower!

I ditched my crutches!

I’m back at work.

I can cook!

I’m not back to normal. In fact, all my trying to be normal is probably slowing down my healing. I need to show my injured parts more grace.

But when I remove the expectations I’ve superimposed onto my circumstances, I can see – and count – the blessings that get hidden and waylaid when I focus on where I ‘should’ be.

Before I get angry and stalk away like Naaman, I need to tuck into what is true, and trust God to heal me in His own way, His own time.

Trust in God’s timeline for your life with me?

Father, this is a hard lesson. We so often impose our own expectations on our lives and then get disappointed in them when they don’t come out the way we thought they would. Help us to trust in the process and in Your timing. Amen.