11/11/2022 – Bubble Burst
Have you ever had your bubble burst? I mean you had a high expectation about something, then you were let down, things did not turn out as you thought. Example, you study for an important exam, you expected an A+, but you got a C-, you planned a vacation at Disney, you expected a memorable time, but you got sick for the entire length of the holiday. The long-anticipated movie you wanted to see, you expected it to be an absolute smash, but you got an absolute disaster. These are rather lighthearted examples, but the same is true when our expectations holding up the pillars of our lives are torn down. We expected good health, but we got a life-threatening diagnosis from the doctor, we expected a long happy marriage, but we got betrayed when our spouse ran off with someone else, we expected a long prosperous career at our jobs, but we got the pink slip and find ourselves unemployed. We have all felt that sense of our high expectations burst into a shrunken reality. Consider the following bible passage:
2 Kings 5:10-12
10 – Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”
11 – But Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.
12 – Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So, he turned and went off in a rage.
The mighty soldier Naaman, a commander of the army of the king of Aram, Naaman had a high expectation of how he would be cured of leprosy. He imagines a grand religious prayer, “the prophet calling on the name of the Lord”, he imagines a grand gesture, “the prophet waiving his hand over the affected area”, inflating the bubble of expectation further. Elisha then bursts Naaman’s bubble by, not even greeting him in person, sending a messenger to Naaman “go jump in the river, the Jordan river, seven times”. Naaman thinks to himself “What a let down! What a waste of every one’s time! Don’t we have cleaner rivers in Damascus! “
But the lesson here is that God shows up only after our bubble has burst, God doesn’t fit in our tiny expectation box. Surprisingly we find our answers in the muddy dark waters of the Jordan river, when we obey the instructions of His word. So, if dunking yourself seven time goes against your well-crafted expectations, then dunk yourself seven times.
Meditate on this verse today
2 Kings 5:14
“So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.”