Too Good To Be True - He Said

"Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed. But Naaman went away angry and said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?" So he turned and went off in a rage." - 2 Kings 5:8-10 (NIV)


Listen to Too Good To Be True

In the spring of 1997 the phone rang just as we sat down to dinner. The fast-talking man with a Yankee accent said he was with a job placement agency. "Can you be at IBM's main facility tomorrow morning? They need a web-developer."

I hung up thinking, "Is this guy kidding? Why would a company like IBM want to hire a guy like me? I can't even spell HTML, much less code it."

I arrived at the appointment certain that the job interview was a scam-that this yahoo from New York was just trying to extort a placement fee from me. The man I was supposed to meet arrived late and stayed on the phone for most of the interview. Finally he gave me a sheet of HTML code and asked me what a few of the tags meant. "Table, row, hyperlink," I answered, picking out the three I knew.

"Thanks for coming in," he said, ushering me to the door.

I left the interview discouraged. I sensed I'd been added to the list in order to demonstrate that the company was willing to interview outside candidates and that the job had already been promised to another employee within the company.

Naaman left his interview in a rage. He'd arrived with horses, chariots and high expectations, but God's man sent a low-level subordinate to dismiss Naaman. Elisha's message to Naaman was clear. "You stink and your attitude stinks. Now go wash yourself."

Too often we think our wealth, knowledge and position will open doors, but God works on a different realm of influence. He seeks those who are obedient in small matters and who'll remain faithful even when the repetition of the daily tasks seems, well… stupid.

Seven days after that job interview I resigned my position as a toilet paper salesman and went to work for IBM. Turns out God was so committed to finding me gainful employment that he created the world wide web just so I'd have a job.

The solution to our problems is simple, really. It's Christ. We want to add to the formula by boasting of our pedigree, good works and knowledge, but God says, "You're filthy. Your sins are an affront to me. Go wash yourself in the river and be baptized in the name of my Son."

Sometimes, when the solution seems too good to be true, it's God.