Walls and Mortar

This is part five of a series on Nehemiah.  This week focuses on Nehemiah's chapters 6 & 7.

Nehemiah was laser-focused on completing the wall.  During the nearly two months that he pursued his goal , he endured personal fear, threats, low morale, internal injustice, requests for creating a peace treaty, and a prophet calling him to secure himself in the Temple.  All of these could have easily sidetracked him away from his central calling.  

We face similar challenges as we are called to do whatever god is calling us to do in a particular moment or season.

• Sometimes the call is to go deeper in your faith - beyond the comfort zones of where you have been.  Sometimes we wake up and discover that we haven't hosted or investigated a new thought about God for weeks, or months, or years, or decades.
• Sometimes the call is to take steps to improve your relationship with your children, so that you don't find yourself simply their acquaintance.
• Sometimes the call is to talk to your boss about a better way to approach a particular facet of work that may ruffle feathers.
• Sometimes it's being honest with ourselves about the pain we have tried to ignore in our lives.  We know it's there, but we manage to ignore it.

We know what Nehemiah faced in his lifetime, because we hear the same voices tempting us away from what we know we really need to be doing.  We sometimes even listen for the distraction so that we can avoid the hard work before us.  We get busy with a hundred things except the thing that really needs our attention.  All the other stuff is probably good, but not the priority it has commanded.  We know the book we need to read, the quality time with our kids we need to spend, the appointment with our boss we need to make, and the counselor we need to call.  But instead we find another project, take another call, watch another TV show, whatever...  We know we do it, and we know it gets us nowhere.

How did Nehemiah stay so focused?  Surely he wasn't the first to think of rebuilding the wall over several decades, right?  What can we learn from him?

The calling us really irrelevant - the thing we need to focus on.  Nehemiah's call was fitting for where he was in his journey relative to his skill set, spiritual maturity, and level of courage.  His wall me be your relationship - both equally tough for each of you.

I don't think it was altogether easy for Nehemiah.  Check out his prayers along the way - this was no cakewalk for him.  

"⁴ Then I prayed, “Hear us, our God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads, and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land! ⁵ Do not ignore their guilt. Do not blot out their sins, for they have provoked you to anger here in front of the builders.” (Nehemiah 4:4)

¹⁴ Remember, O my God, all the evil things that Tobiah and Sanballat have done. And remember Noadiah the prophet and all the prophets like her who have tried to intimidate me.  (Nehemiah 6:14)

I think the main thing I am taking away from Nehemiah's experience is that the wall's foundation was relationship more than mortar.  While there may have been a range of motives at work in him, the king, and the people, I believe his relationship with God was what moved him to act and continue to act when the pressure mounted.  deep in his belly I think he connected somehow to God, and I think it changed everything.  I think it changed his view of his task, his hopefulness and his leadership voice.  I think people were rallied to his cause because he was such a raving fan of God and what the wall represented.  He was contagious.

Whatever walls we face, I think the foundation issue is relationship more than anything else.  Our relationship to God informs our steps.  Our relationship with God opens the valve for God's power to move in us and through us, enlivening us even as we put ourselves to the task.  Our relationship with God is ultimately our foundation for life and all its struggles.  When it is strong, we prevail, even if we fail.

You are human, just like the Bible's Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Daniel, Jesus, Peter, Paul; just like me.  we all struggle. And we all find our strength to complete our call in the same God.  When we keep our relationship with God tight, we are more likely to face the challenges before us, and less likely to give into the distractions that never cease.

Sometimes our relationship with God is the very thing we struggle to maintain.  There are some things that will make your relationship more likely to flourish.  Consider these ideas and integrate whatever works...

• Determine when you will begin your daily conversation with God.  Just making this habitual will help a bunch.  For me, it's the first thing I do in my day.  I find myself centered and stronger as I lose myself in God.
• Review your God-driven dreams for your life daily to keep yourself on track.  I remind myself daily of a handful of goals: to have a healthy spirit, a healthy body, a healthy emotional life, a healthy marriage, a healthy relationship with my kids, healthy friendships, healthy relationship with my work, healthy extended family relationships, a healthy relationship with my stuff, and a healthy relationship to my world.  Reviewing these every day keeps me focused. 
• Throughout the day, remind yourself that love is the foundation, the behavior, the outcome, and the reward of all we do.  Love changes everything.

May you be encouraged by Nehemiah's example and face your walls.  May you be a Nehemiah for others as they face theirs.