[Note: A few months back, after the MOPS year had ended, I found the 28 day challenge MOPS gave last year with their welcome packet. The next couple of posts are responses I wrote to some of those challenges.]

TRUTH: In what ways do you feel out of control in your life?

DARE: Jump into some water. Dip in a pool, swim in a lake, wade in a river. Let your skin touch water that has been coursing over the earth since the beginning of time.

What feels out of control? My kids. I knew they’d have challenges and needs (everyone does), but I hoped it wouldn’t be all at once. This season has been especially hard between my son’s barrage of assessments to determine whether he has a speech delay (or something more pervasive) and my daughter’s rare & unexplained severe tooth decay. I’m worried about my kiddos and there’s nothing I can do at this point but pray for wisdom and wait for the experts to do what they’re trained to do. In fact, even as I fretfully pray, I can hear the Holy Spirit urging me to wait.

With the urge to wait in mind, I turned to the dare: wade in a river. I thought of Naaman (from 2 Kings 5), who had leprosy and wanted to be healed. The prophet Elisha told him that if he washed in the Jordan River seven times that he would be made clean. Naaman was angry because this advice it was simple, too simple. He expected theatrics, something more than “Wash and be clean.” It was only when his servants reminded Naaman that he would have done some something more difficult, anything really, had Elisha commanded it, that Naaman washed in the river. He was healed.

As I walked down to the rain-swollen creek behind my house, I realized that this journey was more difficult than it first appeared. Once I got down to bank, it was muddier and harder to navigate than I’d imagined. Dipping my toes in the water took climbing on a fallen tree and straining my pointed toes to reach the water. I felt foolish. To make matters worse, there was no dramatic epiphany, just icy mountain water between my toes.

I think I want a more dramatic answer than “wait”. It seems too simple, but has proven more difficult than I imagined. I believe the water wasn’t magic for Naaman, just as it wasn’t for me. The miracle came from the Lord. Naaman was healed because the Lord healed him. All Naaman did was step into the water because that’s what the Lord asked.

So I step into the wait because that’s what he’s asking me to do.