Anything for the Blessing

Can you remember the last time you changed something big in your life? 

Change is hard for anyone.  I stumbled across this statement the other day:  “They always say time changes things but you actually have to change them yourself.”  Changing our habits whether they be thought patterns, attitudes or some aspect of our lifestyle doesn’t simply come with the passing of time.  Most often we find ourselves at a life juncture that causes us to think carefully about our lives and to consider the thresholds we need to cross to move into a better way of life.  Scripture’s word for this is blessing.  God wants us to live in blessing.  But, He never zaps people with a magic wand and makes it happen.  A lot of blessings come into our lives only after we take deliberate steps that pave the way for said blessings to materialize.

A while back I had a conversation with a friend who had recently crossed some thresholds of his own.  At one point he remarked:  “I think we miss a lot of good things (blessings?) because we are too thick-headed to come to terms with the kind of change necessary to allow us to experience the blessing.  It’s sort of like a gift that someone gives us.  We know there’s something good on the inside, but because it didn’t come the way we imagined, we refuse to open it and enjoy what’s inside.” 

The story in 2 Kings 5 makes me chuckle and scream every time I read it.  Naaman was a Syrian commander who had leprosy.  Leprosy was and still is incurable.  He received word from a young Israelite slave that a prophet in Israel named Elisha could possibly heal him.  As the story climaxes, Naaman puts together a large entourage and heads south to find Elisha.  He has already imagined how his healing will occur.  To his surprise, Elisha orders him to go dip in the nasty Jordan river seven times.  Simple terms to say the least.  Naaman’s response?  “Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.” (2 Kings 5:12)  Scripture says pride goes before the fall.  Another way to put it might be, “Pride stands between us and blessing.” 

Sometimes we need the wise words of somebody outside our situation to say, “Look past how the blessing comes and what is being asked of you and….seize the blessing!”  2 Kings 5:13-14 says, “But his servants came near and said to him, "My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?" So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.” 

What good things (blessings!) are out there waiting for us to come to terms with a change threshold of some kind?  We may have to humble ourselves.  We may have to say words we’ve needed to say for a long time.  We may need to train our heart to turn loose of a habit or embrace a new habit.  In the end the only thing that matters is transitioning into the blessing.  We just need to take off our shoes, walk down the river bank and get to dipp’n. 

Randy Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas