I had a conversation with a woman not long before she died. She knew she was sick. I think she even knew how sick she was. She wanted me to pray for her.

I asked her what to pray for. She said, “for a second chance.” Other people get a second chance, she said. She wanted me to ask for one for her, too. I said, “What would you do with a second chance?”

We had a good conversation. And it’s a question that I want to remember. Because all of us at one time or another want a second chance at life.

It’s what Naaman wanted.

Naaman was a general for Aram, one of the countries in tension with Israel in the time of Elisha. Naaman had a skin disease.

The text calls it leprosy. It may not have been like ours, but it was a disease that cut you off from other people. Naaman had a good job, but his military skills couldn’t fix his body.

An Israelite slave that served his wife said, “If you go to Israel, we have prophets that can heal things like that.” Naaman went to the King of Aram, who sent him with a note to the King of Israel saying, “I hear you can heal my best general.” The note didn’t say, though it was probably implied, “This is the general who has defeated you in battle several times. If you mess up, we’ll do it again.”

Eventually, Elisha gets involved. He sends a message to Naaman, telling him to dip his body in the Jordan River seven times. When he has done that, he will be healed. Naaman is annoyed. He expected respect, or at least a face-to-face conversation. He expected dramatic prayer. He got meaningless actions in a messy river.

It happens all the time.

We want things to be better. We define what better looks like. And we define the process for better. We assume that our success is a result of our hard work, that our healing will come because of our goodness, that our position in the world is because of our deserving, that we deserve respect.

Often, our healing will come through our humility.
Miracles will happen through mundane steps.
Relationships will be restored through simple daily acts of apology and trust-building and forgiveness.
Through seeking simply to love one another.

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More tomorrow. For today, think about what you might do with a second (or seventeenth) chance.