A leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Mark 1:40-41

But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!" 2 Kings 5

As we all begin to dig out from the snow and slowly return to normal routines, we realize that we human beings are not always happy with a change in plans. As most parents of schoolage children know, one snow day is fun---everyone gets to sleep late, sledding at the park is a novel event, shoveling the path to our house is greatly satisfying, naps galore. However, when we have a blizzard and we are housebound for days, the fun seems to slowly ebb away. We get frustrated with schedules--is school going to be two hours late or closed again? Will I get to keep my appointment I made months ago? We get a little bored. Our back and arms hurt from shoveling. Our parking spot gets nabbed by a neighbor. We miss our routines--which have been completely mashed by the snowfall. This weekend, I realized that when we have an illness or operation or job change or move, we feel quite the same. However, unlike a snow day, an operation or job change or move takes many more days to establish some sort of routine. The problem seems to be that we just don't want to change the routine!!! In fact, we fight it every step of the way! Here's just one example from our post-operation home life. For 25 years, Bryan has slept on the left side of the bed and I have slept on the right side. Wherever we have lived or whatever hotel we've stayed in, such is the case. Our respective bedside tables are set up to our liking. I even prefer to read on my right side at night and have trouble falling asleep reading on my left. Well, it so happens that for this next week we have had to change sides of the bed. Horrors! Bryan's catheter is taped to his right leg and he has to have the right side of the bed. Just this change has made us both a bit grumpy. And so I've been thinking, what if this were a permanent situation? Would I adjust? Perhaps the more important question: Would I choose to adjust? Sometimes, for whatever reason, we just find it a daily battle to accept change in our lives. Sometimes in order to heal, we have to choose to accept that this illness, this situation, is real and that we have to make unwanted changes in our lives. Sometimes these changes are permanent. In his ministry, Jesus always makes choices and moves forward. In the First Lesson from Sunday, Naaman has trouble moving forward--he wants to be healed his way. It often takes God's messengers--often so unexpected--to steer us to making the choices that allow us to begin to heal. For me, the message is often: "Yes, well, I know it's tough. It was hard. I made it through it too. You can too." As I grow older, I imagine that this pattern of changing established routine becomes a routine in itself. Ah yes, there it is again---my resistance to change, my frustration with change and hopefully my choice to change and move forward.

Text: 2 Kings 5:1-15 and Mark 1:40-45

Pondering: What changes are you struggling with? What choices are needed to move forward? What message does God bring to you?

In Christ's Love,