Reflections from my soul to yours.
It could be Today
Nehemiah 2
When we were newly married and fresh out of college, Nate accepted a job as a pastoral intern. Apparently we didn’t hide our age or naïveté very well, because the pastor looked at the two of us and said kindly, "Being in ministry is the ministry of preparation.”
I’m not sure how many times over the past two decades that phrase has been both motivating and consoling to me. It’s motivating, because it begs the question, “What ministry are you preparing for right now?”, and it’s consoling, because when there is no tangible position, title, or opportunity that I can see, God is preparing me. Often, my own act of preparing and God’s act of preparing me, coincide.
Without preparation, there is - at best - less to contribute.
With preparation, there is - at best - a life to contribute.
Chapter 1 of Nehemiah closed with his expectant prayer, “Give success to your servant today…”
I wonder if Nehemiah prayed that prayer every day during the four months that passed between the end of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2. How many days did he wake up thinking, “it could be today that God gives me success”? And 120 days went by.
No doubt, expectation was building, and as it did, preparations for rebuilding took shape. This was Nehemiah’s ministry of preparation: untold hours calculating supplies, manpower, and legalities; late nights, distracted daydreaming, and the risk of being misunderstood when it all started to show.
Since it could be today, let’s embrace the ministry of preparation like Nehemiah did:
Pray to God
Plan the details
Present the idea
Discerning a Calling
Maybe you’re familiar with the concept that whatever breaks your heart could be the difficulty, situation, or topic where the world needs your voice and presence the most. It’s the idea that when you find yourself deeply grieved by a situation, and you hear yourself saying, “It shouldn’t be like this”, God might be calling you to change things.
I see this process at work in the life of the Old Testament prophet, Nehemiah.
Nehemiah was exiled a thousand miles from his Jewish homeland, serving a Persian king. If you’ve ever lived far from your native country, your hometown, or your family, you know that distance stirs up questions about the people and places you love. These questions range from curiosity to concern, random to persistent.
Question marks are heavy. Not knowing what’s going on, not having an answer, and not hearing a word, are burdens hard to bear. Whether questions linger about physical, spiritual, or emotional matters, they feel like carrying around a backpack of bricks or walking under storm clouds, thick with rain.
For Nehemiah, the only way news traveled was by foot - a reality we can barely imagine today - so when a band of brothers arrived in Susa from Jerusalem, he went straight to them for updates about escapees, survivors, and the capital city.
What they shared only weighed Nehemiah down further, as they unloaded on him all the trouble, shame, brokenness, and destruction in Jerusalem. But how Nehemiah responded to the news, can serve as a template for us; when our hearts cry out, “It shouldn't be like this”, Nehemiah shows us what to do about it:
He sat down
He wept
He mourned for days
He fasted
He prayed
If you’re bearing a burden of “it shouldn’t be like this,” follow Nehemiah’s five-fold response, found in chapter 1, and see how God might actually open doors to a calling on your life.
For more on fasting, check out this article.
A body, a kingdom, a family, and a building
Body
Kingdom
Family
Building
What do these share in common?
Each one is composed of smaller units, coming together to make the whole, and through Christ, you’re invited into every one of them. His body. His kingdom. His family. His building.
At different seasons in our lives, we might resonate with the invitation to identify with one of these more than the others, or we might feel inadequate about involvement in one more than the others. I want to fully embrace what God has for me, but often, I need encouragement to respond with a yes in all four of these areas. Here’s mine to you:
His body. You’re an essential body part in Christ’s activity on earth. Christ lives through you, and often, your best contribution to His whole body is something you shrug off as “no big deal”.
His Kingdom. You share royal citizenship in His everlasting kingdom. If you feel out of place living out his culture here, let that be a signal that you truly belong somewhere else.
His family. You are loved as His favored child. Your Father delights in you like the finalizing of a long-awaited adoption.
His building. You were intentionally created to fit into the design and structure of his building. Your life was shaped from the very beginning for a specific place in God’s bigger construction project.
May King David’s wonder at God’s desire to include us, be ours today:
“But who am I and what are my people that we should be able to offer willingly? For all things come from You and of Your own hand have we given you. For we are strangers before You and sojourners as all our fathers were. Our days on earth are like a shadow and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building You a house for Your holy name comes from Your hand and is all Your own.”
1 Chronicles 29:14-16
Approved & Pleasing
Last week, after returning from a retreat and launching a women’s Bible study at our church, an attack from the enemy came full-force into my heart:
“No one will be closer to Jesus because of those verses.”
“All you did was talk about things that don’t matter.”
“That was a waste of time.”
“If you didn’t see tears, the Word didn’t reach hearts.”
“You think there was any power behind that message?”
Etcetera. In the moment, those words landed as more valid and true than any other words.
I’m sure you’ve been there. You’ve given yourself to something God called you into, and afterward, the second-guessing, the doubts, and the lies land heavy. “What was I even thinking to imagine God could use me?”, we ask ourselves.
But there are words more valid and true that fight back like a sword:
1. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15
We put forth effort within our callings so that we stand tested and approved by God, not by others, and not even by ourselves, so tainted by pride and vulnerable to deception. Feedback and self-evaluation have their place, but they don't determine whether God approves. Handling God’s word faithfully enables us to stand unashamed in its truth when the enemy aims darts of shame at us.
…So was I aiming for God’s approval by accurately handling His word?
2. “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
Pleasing God begins with faith, not with activity. Actions within our calling must be based on faith that God is calling! We draw nearer to God in what He’s calling us to do, because we believe that He is in it and that He rewards our step of faith.
…So was I walking by faith in what I did?
Although I did it feebly, these were the truths I had to take to heart and the questions I asked back at the lies. Whatever God has called you to today, arm yourself with words more valid and true than all other words.
How to Make Yourself at Home
I’ve just followed God’s people through the book of Jeremiah into their tragic exile in Babylon. They had rejected God’s word and ignored His intervention, unwilling to change their ways, and so the consequences God had warned them about, finally came. Their deportation occurred in waves over the course of 17 years as hundreds or thousands of them at a time were taken captive (Jeremiah 52:28-30).
How they must have mourned all that they lost. A move itself is difficult enough emotionally and spiritually, but a move as divine judgment could have clothed them in sackcloth and ashes for the rest of their lives. They could have justifiably lived in their new location in a perpetual state of grief and disconnection, veiled in black and living in the past. But the most shocking thing about this discipline for their sin is God’s four-fold instruction to them regarding their new home:
“Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.
Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile,
and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare.” Jeremiah 29:5-7
His message is essentially, Make yourself at home, and here’s how to do it.
At the end of this summer, Nate and I will celebrate 20 years of marriage. Over those years, we’ve lived in 4 states, 1 foreign country, and 9 apartments or houses along the way. That’s certainly not a record, but it’s more moves than I imagined for our family. Although none of our relocations happened for reasons like Judah’s all those millennia ago, the four-fold strategy God gave His people back then has served us well each time we’ve found ourselves in a new place:
Don’t live out of boxes. Unpack, decorate, garden, and live each day with a long-term mindset, rather than a temporary one. A temporary mindset is tempting, because it’s self-protection against the effort involved in starting over and the pain of eventual departure. But tears about leaving are better than cheers that you’re leaving.
Cultivate and celebrate new beginnings. Build deep enough relationships in the new place that you throw wedding showers and baby showers. God’s type of love multiplies, so with Him, you have enough love to keep giving.
Sarcasm about the new place or comparison to the last place delays your adjustment and denies God’s leadership. Instead, make it a better place because of your presence there with the experiences and insights you bring to it. Contribute to its good; don’t tear it down.
When you pray, include the geographical place where you live. Its peace will be your peace. Prayer softens our hearts, and that’s the change God is really after in His plan for our peace.