Crazy Stuff

One of my favorite Biblical stories takes place in 2 Kings 5. It is the story of Naaman. Naaman is a commander in the army of Aram. The Scriptures tell us that he is a good man but he suffers from leprosy. Aram and Israel are neighboring nations who have fought in the past but are currently enjoying a fragile peace. The King of Aram hears through his Israelite slave-girl that there is a prophet in Israel who could cure Naaman of his leprosy. The king of Aram sends a letter to the king of Israel on Naaman's behalf in hopes of healing. Of course, the king of Israel sees this whole thing as a setup: ‘Am I God, to give death or life, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Just look and see how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me.’

But Elisha hears word of the request and tells the king to send Naaman on. This is where the story gets especially interesting. When Naaman arrives with his party at Elisha's house, the prophet shouts instructions out through the door. He tells Naaman to go and wash in the Jordan seven times. The commander is furious. He is especially angry about the simplicity of the answer and the fact that Elisha didn't even come out to see him and raise some kind of religious spectacle. But his associates manage to calm him down. They tell him basically, "why not?" Why got give it a try? Just because a solution is not complicated does not necessarily mean that it won't work. Of course, when he finally goes and washes the seven times in the Jordan, he becomes clean.

Last night I was thumbing through the channels and I came upon an infomercial. It was Kevin Trudeau selling a series of books written by Robert Barefoot. Both of these people have come under enormous suspicion and criticism by the federal government. The two men were having a conversation about the benefits of Coral Calcium and Vitamin D. At one point, Robert Barefoot said something to the effect of 90% of all disease could be cured by taking Calcium and spending two hours a day in the sunshine--without sunscreen.

The claims coming out of Barefoot's mouth seemed preposterous. I could scarcely imagine that he was making them on television and with a straight face. He was talking specifically about the suppression of scientific evidence proving the benefits of Calcium and Vitamin D in battling everything from MS to cancer. When asked about why people don't know about this stuff, he pointed to the Pharmaceutical Industry and its financial connection to everything from the national media to the FDA. When pressed on how something so simple (and inexpensive) could possibly work better than hundreds of billions of dollars worth of drugs, Barefoot simply said, "God knew what he was doing."

I've seen those Velcro straps that people wear just below their knees. They look like nothing more than a strip of cloth but people swear by them.

In the movie, "Idiocracy," Joe Bauers wakes up 500 years in the future to find that the gene pool has worked its way to the least common denominator. While an average person in 2006, Joe is far and away the smartest person on earth in 2506 but his intelligence only serves to get him into trouble. At one point, he notices that the people are using a Gatorade-like product called Brawndo to irrigate their crops. Consequently, all the crops are dying and it is posing a national crisis. Joe tells them that they could solve the crisis if they would use water instead but the proposition is ludicrous to the people of the twenty-sixth century. Clearly quoting some advertisement that he had heard over and over again, the Secretary of State, proclaims, "But Brawndo's got what plants crave. It's got electrolytes."

I've recently been reading the book of Acts. And I came across something that I had never really noticed before. There are two separate stories in which the Gospel message comes into conflict with the way that people make money (Acts 16:16ff and Acts 19:23ff). The stories are telling in that in each case there is a clear conflict between God's message breaking in to a community and the financial stress that this new reality creates.

Our society says that it wants to be healthy. But I sense that there are some crazy problems that stand in the way. One of these is money. The other one is a misappropriation of faith. We have been led to believe that health is complex and costly. We have been led to believe that we need experts to tell us and sell us on what our body needs. And the assumption driving this escalating race is the belief (and I suspect a false belief) that the more complicated something is, the more likely it is to be helpful in our vain pursuit of health. Curiously, for all the expertise, complicated drugs and expensive treatment, our people seem to be sicker.

Naaman didn't want to believe that his leprosy could be cured by the simple suggestion of a prophet in Israel. Happily though, he had a few friends who helped him understand that his health was really more important than his pride.