In the movie, “I Bought a Zoo,” Benjamin Mee buys a zoo after his wife dies leaving him with 2 young children to raise. The movie is great (except for the swearing – ouch!) but what really touched me was a conversation Ben has with his son, Dylan about courage. “You know,” Ben says, “Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. Just, literally, 20 seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.”
While applicable to many situations in life, there was one parallel I drew today as I was sitting in Sunday School listening to the lesson about Elisha the prophet, and Naaman the Syrian soldier.
Let me interject here really quick that the great thing about our church is that the lessons are coordinated world-wide. What we are studying in California is the same exact lesson the saints in Cambodia are also learning. The occasional downside is that someone gets off their schedule and we get a repeat lesson. This happened today and at first I was not excited, but decided I’d try and pay attention and learn something new, or look at the story in a different way.
As the teacher shared the video I’ve posted below, one thing in particular stuck out to me: the incredible bravery of the young maid who spoke up. She was alone in a country that wasn’t hers, serving a people with different beliefs, and probably fairly disheartened. When she heard her master and his wife struggling with the leprosy Naaman had, she had the 20 seconds of insane courage to speak up. She said, “Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.” Not “might” recover him, or “maybe he can help you” but simple faith that simply the prophet can heal.
The blessings that came from that 20 seconds of her insane courage are expressed in 2 Kings 5:15 where Naaman says, “Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.” What do you want to bet he told everyone when he got back home that there was a prophet in Israel?
Sometimes sharing my beliefs is terrifying. Sometimes I don’t feel like I can speak up, but even if my words, ideas or beliefs only turn someone’s heart towards the direction of God maybe that is enough.
