Running With Perseverance

So often we think that taking the easy way out is a cop-out. We think it means taking short cuts, not trying our hardest, not doing our best. But our Old Testament reading last week got me thinking that maybe the “easy way” isn’t always the wrong way. Maybe we resist the “easy way” because we think we are better, stronger, or smarter. Sometimes we see a simple solution to a problem, but think we must be missing something–it can’t be that easy . . . or can it?

The reading was from 2 Kings 5: 1-14, about a great Syrian captain who suffered from leprosy, and was healed by the prophet Elisha:

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him Jehovah had given victory unto Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.
And the Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would that my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! then would he recover him of his leprosy. . . . . 
So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.
And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?
Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

This horribly diseased captain traveled from Syria to Israel, brought the King of Israel “ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment,” and yet was about to storm back home in a rage–still suffering from leprosy–because he was insulted by the simplicity of the cure.

Luckily, he had servants who were wise enough–and brave (or stupid) enough–to call him out and bring him to his senses.

Do you tend to look for difficult solutions to your problems?

Are you afraid of taking the easy way out?