I came here to see what was next after Nehemiah's big send-off in the previous chapter that I wrote about last week. But what I found here reads more like the credits to a movie.
I think where I am sitting in my life, this speaks to me about delegation. As passionate about Nehemiah was about rebuilding the walls, he couldn't do it himself. Not only did he have to entrust the tasks of it to others, he had to give them the authority and responsibility to go along with it. It was too big a job to even supervise himself. And if you read it all, and I challenge you to, you'll find little glimpses of things that show that it probably wasn't all exactly perfect like it would have been if one crew had gotten the bid and done it all professionally with deadlines and blueprints. But it still protected the city.
Probably more importantly about God bringing this about in this hodge-podge way, was that they met another even more important goal. This project didn't just get the wall built, it united the people. They could have buy-in and had personal investment in their home turf now.
That was a big lesson for me to hear today. I'll come back to Nehemiah soon and see what else Nehemiah's wall has to say to me and my wall.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Nehemiah 3
Labels: history books
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3 comments:
Great observation of this book. Although He gifts some with super gifts,God has a better plan than a 'Lone Ranger' approach. I think He looks down with pleasure to see a less than perfect finished product, when it was done by the Body of Christ, rather than one Superman or Wonderwoman. It is usually easier for us to do it ourselves, but many lessons are lost on both ends. May we see our purposes fulfilled as we work together in the Kingdom of God.
I'm sitting here remembering when we built this red building. We had so many faithful people doing their part actually with the physical labor, just like the wall. Someone who had a skill taught others and then each took up their part. The 'professionals' were amazed each morning to see what the rest of us had accomplished each evening. It isn't a perfect building, but it has served so many different people in the 15 years since those sweet first days. God is good indeed. We, like Nehemiah,forged ahead out of necessity rather than a big revelation from God. He just wants us to be faithful in the call. He supplies the rest. We were amazed daily, and still are, at how God gets things done we could never do ourselves!!!
Whoops, I forgot to mention---Did you notice there was plenty of criticism for a less than perfect job, but Nehemiah knew his boss was pleased, so he didn't worry with the naysayers. Good lesson for us too!
We would have 'thrown in the towel' long ago if we listened very long to man rather than God. Once you hear HIM clearly--it is full steam ahead!
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