Start Building

God gave me a very profound thought this morning.  I was reading in the book of Nehemiah.  If you're not familiar with the Bible, I'll give you a short synopsis of what is happening when Nehemiah comes on the scene.  The nation of Israel was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., and many of its citizens were carried off to become servants in the Babylonian Empire.  However, many years later,  King Cyrus allows some of the Israelite people to return to Jerusalem and start rebuilding the temple.  The work got off to a rocky start because the neighboring peoples did not want to see Israel rebuilt as they feared its people would grow in power and become a problem for them.  So for many years and throughout the reign of several kings, this small group of exiles who had returned struggled to make progress on building the temple and their city.  Along comes Nehemiah.  He was a cupbearer for King Artaxerxes. He felt he was called by God to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city wall, so he asked permission of the king, and it was granted to him.  

  Now, here's where the exciting part is.  When Nehemiah got to Jerusalem, he snuck out at night and rode his donkey around the walls of Jerusalem to survey all the repairs that needed to be made.  There was a lot of work to be done, few people, and much opposition.  He could have turned back and returned to his cushy job with the king.  But instead, he and the remnant of the people set to work, and it's not the work they did, but how they did it that is key here.  Chapter three of the book of Nehemiah goes something like this,

         "Nehemiah [...] made repairs up to a point opposite the tombs of David [...].  Next to him, the repairs were made by the Levites [...] Beside him, Hashabiah [...] carried out repairs for his district.  Next to him, the repairs were made by their countrymen."  

  And on and on it goes.  The important words here are "next to him."  Nehemiah could have looked at the huge job which lay before him, and the small amount of people he had to help him and said, "No way.  It will never happen."  Instead, they set out to work with each person taking care of building a small section of the wall.  They worked next to each other, each one repairing the spot which was in front of his house.  Brick by brick they worked, each one focusing on his area, and side by side they got the job done.  Ok, great story, but what does it have to do with us?  

  In our world today, we are facing great challenges.  Sometimes it seems overwhelming to rebuild society and to get back to a place of wholeness, but God doesn't call us to rebuild the whole wall ourselves.  We just need to work on our small section, and if we all work next to each other, side by side we can repair and restore our homes, our neighborhoods, our cities, and our world.  If each one of us just begins by helping the people near us, the ones closest to us, if we repair the section in front of our house, and if we do this "next to him, and next to him, and next to him,"  pretty soon we've restored the whole place, and that is a beautiful thing.   Will you start building next to me today?  If we all do a little, we can accomplish a whole lot.  I'm counting on you!

~K.W.