It was very hard for me to get excited about going back to work this morning. A week off from work always makes me look forward to a time in my future when I will be able to retire. I look forward to the stress-free lifestyle that it surely will be and the chance to live in the sort of freedom I can only explore when I take some precious time off from work.
Some of you who may happen to be reading this are already furrowing your brow, jumping at the chance to correct me because it is no picnic, you’ll say. I won’t be listening. Retirement is my last remaining dream while I am on this earth, so let me live it! Anything is better than having to get up and go to work for a living, right? At any rate, it should be easy to top the mundane existence that I daily find myself in.
This is all tongue in cheek and I hope you caught that in between the words I’ve written. I have a little problem with my attitude today, and as a result I forgot for a little while about how thankful I should be to even have a job in this time we are living in. Again, though my job may be mundane as I have mentioned, at the very least it pays our bills. It is easy to forget what we have been blessed with when we do the same old things every day and there appears to be no end in sight. And it is also very easy to carry around a bad attitude about the way things are apparently going for you when you find yourself in that mind-set. It reminds me of a story in the Bible that is one of my favorites, and that being the case, it is a story I should always remember and take to heart.
Naaman was a Syrian and his story is found in Second Kings, chapter five. He was a great man the Bible tells us, but then it mentions that he was a leper. On the advice of a servant girl, he decides to pay Elisha the prophet a visit seeking help for his condition. He travels many miles, very tough to do especially with his health, and he finally arrives at Elisha’s house. Instead of healing him right away, or at least coming out to greet him, Elisha sends word through a messenger that Naaman should go wash himself in the Jordan River seven times. This obviously wasn’t the way he thought things would play out, and I’ll let the Bible give you Naaman’s response. “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 the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, 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.”
He left in a rage. I only thought I had a bad attitude this morning! He had travelled for many days expecting a miracle or something of that nature at the very least - and this was all he was going to get? So he turns around, ready to leave, ready to give up, and ready to go back to the way things were at the beginning of the chapter; a great man that was oh-by-the-way, a leper.
As he is leaving, one of his servants musters up the courage to find his voice and asks, “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?” Finally a voice of reason, and sometimes it takes someone stating what is blatantly obvious to cure a bad attitude. Naaman reconsiders, goes down to the Jordan, washes as instructed, and then he is cured.
I’m thankful for what God has given me and how He takes care of me and watches over me. All He asks is that I serve Him and live the life that He would have me to live. It is not really hard to do so either, certainly not most of the time. I need to remember that He has not asked me to do anything that I cannot do with His help for that matter. Instead of washing in the Jordan River, I have been washed in the Blood of the Lamb.
Cleaning up in that manner is a sure-fire cure for the common, bad attitude. Whether you find yourself a leper or a regular, run-of-the-mill sinner, it’s all the same to Him. It’s all about the cleansing that only He can provide.
I am a great believer in retirement. My week consists of 6 Saturdays and a Sunday. I hope you get to experience it soon because it's great. I would hate to have to go back to work now.
ReplyDeleteAw - don't rub it in!!!! Thanks though, and I do look forward to it ONE DAY!
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