2 Kings 5:6-10: in context

Naaman, a great commander of Syria, comes to Israel to be healed of his leprosy, arriving with horses and chariots and a royal letter. The king of Israel panics, tearing his clothes; but Elisha sends word: let him come to me, and he shall know there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman comes with his grand retinue and stands at Elisha's door. But Elisha does not even come out to greet the great man; he sends a messenger with a simple instruction: go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and you will be clean.

The cure Elisha prescribes is strikingly plain: go wash in the Jordan seven times. There is no grand ceremony, no dramatic ritual, no impressive display; Elisha does not even come out to perform it himself, but sends a messenger with a simple command to bathe in an ordinary river. Naaman, a great man, had expected something grander, a spectacle worthy of his importance, and the plain instruction offended him, as the next verses show. But God's way of healing him was through this humble, simple means, not the dramatic cure Naaman had imagined. There is a lesson here about how God often works, and about our pride that expects something grander. We are prone, like Naaman, to expect God to work in dramatic, impressive ways, and to overlook or despise the simple, humble means he actually prescribes. God said, wash in the ordinary Jordan; Naaman wanted a spectacle. And this pattern runs through God's dealings: he often chooses the simple over the grand, the humble means over the impressive, the ordinary over the dramatic. God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, Paul says; he saves through the plain preaching of the gospel, which seems foolishness to those who expect something more impressive. Our pride wants the grand gesture, the dramatic experience, the impressive sign; and God, again and again, works through the simple and the humble, the ordinary act of obedience, the plain means. This calls us to a humility that does not despise the simple ways God prescribes, that is willing to obey the plain instruction rather than holding out for something grander, that does not let pride make us overlook the humble means through which God actually works. Naaman nearly missed his healing because it came through a means too simple for his pride; and we can miss what God offers by despising the plain and humble ways he chooses to work. Wash in the ordinary Jordan, God said; and the humility to obey the simple means, rather than demanding the grand, is often the very thing that opens us to what God is doing.

Do I expect God to work in dramatic, impressive ways, and despise or overlook the simple, humble means he actually prescribes, like Naaman offended by the plain instruction to wash in the ordinary Jordan, and can I learn the humility to obey the simple ways God chooses to work, rather than letting my pride hold out for something grander?