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When I was a little more than a boy running around in my first parish with a seminary degree, I discovered Naaman.  For those who have still not found him, his story is told in the 5th chapter of II Kings.  Naaman was a man who lived at the top of his world.  He was a Syrian general. He had the favor of the King.  When he spoke, others listened and did his bidding.  He also had leprosy.  A captured Hebrew servant girl told him about a Hebrew prophet named Elisha who had healing powers.  After a time of battling with his ego, he was finally convinced to seek him out.    

When he arrived at the prophet's house with all the pomp and circumstance of his military power, Elisha sent a servant out telling him to go wash seven times in the Jordan River.  Naaman was incensed at the lack of regard for his position as well as for being told to wash himself in some inferior and dirty Hebrew river.  His ego was too big to be told what to do by someone he regarded as a nobody.  In the midst of his internal fuming, his servants finally convinced him he had nothing to lose by going and so he went, submitting himself to the words of the Hebrew prophet.  When he got out of the water the last time, the leprosy was gone.    

God does not always restore us to wholeness according to our dictates.  We do not hold enough in our hands to demand anything from Him.  A contrite heart is what He desires in us.  Psalms 51:17 tells us, "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise."  The contrite heart is the heart that does not depend upon itself, but one that has no claim to anything and casts itself on the mercy, grace, and goodness of God.  The road to Naaman's healing was so paved as will ours.