May 2006

ELDER CORNER FOR MAY 2006
John Henderson

In my personal study recently, I ran across the story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5. You may recall that Naaman was the captain of the Syrian army, and he was a leper. Through a series of events, he ends up at the doorway of Elisha, hoping to be healed by the prophet of Israel.

Elisha sent his messenger out to Naaman with this message: “Go and wash in the Jordan River seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean”.
His response? Naaman was furious at this idea! This was not how he wanted to be healed.
In the first place, he expected Elisha to come out and personally meet him, wave his hands around and call out to his God [v 11]. In the second place, if he was going to have to wash in a river, the Abanah or Pharpar rivers in Damascus were far superior, in his opinion, to the Jordan river in Israel [v 12].

You’d think that Naaman would have been grateful for the chance to be cleansed from his leprosy, regardless of how it came about. But he wanted it done HIS WAY, and he became furious and rejected Elisha’s instructions until his servants finally convinced him to do what Elisha told him. 

Naaman’s story reminded me that God does not always do things the way I would like them to be done. For example, in 1996, Mary and I clearly felt led by God to accept a new challenge to serve Him in Eastern Europe. We completed our contribution to the ministry of Campus Crusade in New Zealand, and with great excitement moved to Budapest in December 1997.  As most of you know, this began a series of years where Mary’s struggle with fibromyalgia intensified and ultimately led us to move back here in 2003 because of the deterioration of her health.

It’s clear that this was a good decision filled with God’s wisdom. Mary’s health has significantly improved over the past few years and I am so thankful to God for “giving me back my wife”.  And, we were able to continue our ministry involvement in Eastern Europe.
However, it certainly was not our idea to live in California with our ministry focus being in Eastern Europe. This did not make sense to us. It felt confusing, less than desirable and not what we would have chosen.

It is in times like these, when God provides for our needs in ways that we would not choose, that we humble ourselves before Him and thank him for His loving care for us. He has the prerogative to provide for our needs according to His wise plans and purposes. After all, HE IS providing for our needs, even if He does it in a way we do not expect.