Nehemiah, Brian Hardin and Bricks in the Wall

Thursday, August 15, 2013 Posted by Debbie Legg

I believe we can learn something from everyone we meet. For the past few days, however, I have been learning from people I have not met.

I've mentioned before that I listen to the Daily Audio Bible. The Old Testament reading for the last several days has been from Nehemiah, and God is using this book as a crowbar, attempting to pry out some of my serious disobedience and lousy attitude. I have been, um, shall we say, resisting.

Brian, the DAB’s fearless leader, speaks about Nehemiah’s life--an exile from Judah and a servant of the king of the Persian Empire, he leaves this great position to take fellow exiles back to Jerusalem to rebuild the wall. What he gets for his passion is discouragement, diminishment, frustration, even death threats, yet he refuses to come down off the wall, to stop doing what he is meant to do. Through his leadership the exiles finish the wall in an astonishing 52 days, often working with tools in one hand and a weapon in the other.

It was terribly difficult for Nehemiah. At any time he could have said, “Forget it. It’s too hard. It’s too dangerous. It’s costing me too much. I quit.” But he doesn’t. He stays the course, inspires the nation and succeeds.

Brian applies this to our lives, saying, “It is so much more romantic to think about what you’re called to do than it is to do what you’re called to do…it’s hard, hard, hard work. Don’t come down off the wall…we can’t get to what comes next until it’s done.

“Whatever it is for you, don’t stop what you know God has told you to do….Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be distracted. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t be diminished…And don’t think it’s not enough…

“My goodness, what brick in a wall doesn’t matter?...They all matter because they together make the wall. Everything that we are called to do matters….Finish what you started.”

Hear that? That’s God’s crowbar (hopefully, finally) succeeding. I will finish, even though it is hard. Through distraction, discouragement, intimidation, diminishment. One brick at a time. Standing on the wall.

*Daily Audio Bible Transcript, 8-13-13