She's back! Paris Hilton, that is.
I  generally read the Globe and Mail online every day.
While Ms Hilton's travails were in the spotlight you could hardly avoid it in the news. The online Globe and Mail  has a section where readers can login and comment on each of the days stories. When the Los Angeles Sheriff's department let her out a few days early, readers comments were over the top.
Just to stir things up a bit, I posted a comment online saying that I thought it was perfectly fine for her to get out a bit early if that was the Sheriff's judgment.
That was not a particularly popular opinion that day.
Most folks were quite happy to see the spoiled rich girl get her comeuppance and were most hostile that once again money and fame seemed to  trump everything else.

We love to see oversized egos get their comeuppance, and we love the stories of the humble person who succeeds against all odds.

God shares our tastes that way. Maybe that's where we get it.
The Bible says God resists the proud and lifts up the humble.
In fact if you want to know one of the ways to find God's favor, begin with humility.

I love this story of the healing of Naaman the Syrian general.
It's a story of the proud and the humble. It has drama and it has humor. Above all is God, showing the same concern for the high as the lowly, abundant in mercy and power.

A big man with a bigger  problem

Naaman is commander of Syria's armies, and as such is a big man in Syria. We later learn he is wealthy too.
But he is a big man with a bigger problem. He has leprosy, a serious and highly contagious illness for which there was no cure. Leprosy was slow but it was fatal.

The man who controlled thousands of men was about to lose it all because of  an illness he had no control over. As a warrior, he no doubt had contemplated being killed in battle. But now he face to face with an enemy he cannot fight, and is on his way to a horrible death without honor. And there is nothing anyone can do about it. All the kings horses and all the kings men can't put Naaman together again. The most powerful in Syria are reduced to powerlessness by a bug they cannot even see.

The Most important Person in the room

Into this circle of powerlessness steps a lowly house maid. She is a servant girl who had been taken prisoner in a raid on Israel. She is Naaman's wife's servant.
There are many questions you could ask about this girl.
On the one hand you might wonder if she had any resentment toward her Syrian captors.
Why would she want to help Naaman?
On the other hand there is the possibility that she is far better off now than she had been in her life.
As a girl in a border town, it is likely she came from a peasant family.
Economically she is almost certainly better off.
It's interesting to think about. Sometimes events that seem like catastrophes to us can be the vehicle through which God works not only for us, but for others. I know that sounds like  a cliché, but  it is often true.

But the fact we are presented with is a powerful general up against a battle he cannot win.
Into his circle steps a girl who his soldiers had taken as a captive. A girl who is a house servant to his wife.
The humble stretches out her hand to the powerful and the proud.
At that moment, she is far and away the most powerful person in the room.

Now I could imagine that if this girl were consumed with bitterness and hate, it would be a totally different story. A  hate filled girl might sit in her room at night and laugh to herself and secretly enjoy the destruction of this proud Syrian.
Why doesn't she do that?

Could it be that Naaman and his wife treated her kindly and with respect?
You've heard the aphorism:

Focusing on God keeps your vision clear

Whatever the reason, this servant girl goes to Naaman's wife and says, "if only Naaman would visit the prophet in Samaria".
Of all the facts that she could focus on, she focused on what she knew about God and God's man Elisha.
She could have focused on the statistics and concluded that Naaman was toast--which he was.
She could have focused on her anxiety about maybe being out of a job and started looking for good references.
She could have looked for a way back home.
She might even have started looking at how she could turn this to her advantage.
But she looked at Naaman, not as a man who held the world in his hand, but as a man who needed help.
More important, she focuses on God's power to do good.
In this simple act, she brings hope to a hopeless situation.

It's interesting, but the most powerful person in that moment is this nameless girl.
Notice how in comparison, the great become powerless.

This should be a simple matter. Either you believe the girl or you don't.
Either you go visit Elisha or not, but apparently that's not how the diplomatic channel worked. Naaman was heading to a foreign country so his king writes a letter to the king of Israel.

The king of Israel is aghast. "Who am I? Can I cure leprosy?", he says.
He tears his clothes as a sign of total distress. He figures the king of Syria is looking to start a war.

Elisha hears about it and writes to the king of Israel.

Why does God care a fig about Naaman?
Naaman is rich and powerful and the enemy of Israel.
I was reading Psalm 3 the other day in my own daily reading. It is a pray for help from God in a time of trouble.
Toward the end of the Psalm, the author says
                                Deliver me God... smite my enemies...break their teeth!.
God allows us to vent our feelings, but isn't it good that our feelings don't set the agenda.
God's plans for us always set the agenda, not how we feel about things.

God does heal Naaman, but not until Naaman learns a little humility. He comes to Elisha's home expecting Elisha to come out to him and put on a sound and light show, but all Elisha does is send his servant to tell Naaman to wash seven times in the Jordan.
Naaman is offended and refuses initially.
Finally he is persuaded to put his pride aside and do as God has told him.
Naaman does and predictably is healed of his leprosy.

It's one of those paradoxical truths with God, that the minute we get preoccupied about our status or who is getting the credit, we stop becoming much use and God stops using us.
And the moment that we stop caring about whether our feelings are hurt or what we get out of the deal that God makes connections for us that we could never make on our own.

Some may know the name George Washington Carver.
He was born in 1864 to a black couple on a plantation in Missouri. He was orphaned as a young child but was a great student and went on to become a world famous botanist, and the first African American professor at Iowa State University. He is remembered for his work on developing uses for the humble peanut.

"God's little workshop" was the name George Washington Carver gave to his laboratory. According to his own account, it was there the famous scientist asked in prayer to discover the uses of what was then a lowly, unesteemed crop: the peanut.

"Dear Mr. Creator," the humble man began, "please tell me what the universe was made for."

"Ask for something more in keeping with that little mind of yours," God answered. So Carver tried again.

"Dear Mr. Creator, what was man made for?"

Again the Lord replied, "Little man, you ask too much. Cut down the extent of your request and improve the intent." So the scientist tried once more.

"Then Mr. Creator, will you tell me why the peanut was made?"

"That's better," the Lord said, and beginning that day Carver discovered over 300 uses for the lowly peanut.¹

Humility is a wonderful attribute.
We love it in others.
But it didn't hinder the life of a simple servant girl from Israel, who just focused on what God could do.
And this makes her the most important link in the story, along with Elisha.

Did Naaman learn more humility?
I hope so.
How about you?

One thing needs to be clear. This is not about God saying that you are unimportant.
It is about discovering why you are important and to whom.
When we try to make ourselves important in other people's eyes, its a waste of time.
What makes us important is  knowing how much we are loved by the creator.
He loves us so much that he  sent his only son to die for us, so that we could inherit eternal life.  John 3:16
When you see the fellow with the sign at sporting events, that's what he is trying to tell the crowd.

It's a good message.
When you are loved by God and held in his hands, there is really nothing more you can do to add value anyway.
Humility is recognizing that fact.
It is saying, "I am loved and that is enough"
And it is.
And you are.

Prayer: Lord we give thanks for your love. Help us to recognize who we are in you and give up our feeble attempts at making ourselves important in human eyes. As long as we have are approved in your eyes, it is enough.