“So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.”
The Work
Nehemiah’s wall was built under active threat, mockery from outside opponents, discouragement from within, and real danger the whole time. And yet this simple sentence explains how half the wall got finished despite all of it: the people had a mind to work. Willing hearts, not ideal circumstances, moved the project forward.
This closes the first movement of this book on a communal note. Work is not only a private matter between you and your task. It is often, as here, a shared labor, many hands and many trades working the same wall together, each doing their assigned section so the whole structure rises together.
Notice that Nehemiah does not record the wall being built despite difficulty by superhuman individual effort. He records ordinary people, willing, working alongside each other, each doing their part under real opposition, and the sum of that willing, communal labor accomplished something none of them could have built alone.
Whatever wall you are building today, whether alone or alongside others, remember Nehemiah’s people. Opposition and discouragement were real and present. What moved the work forward was not the absence of difficulty. It was a mind to work, sustained, together, despite it.
Do the Work
- Name the opposition or discouragement currently present in your own work.
- Consider who is building alongside you, and encourage them today specifically.
- Bring a mind to work today, not waiting for the difficulty to disappear first.
Prayer
Lord, like Nehemiah’s people, I face real opposition in this work. Give me a mind to work anyway, and let me encourage those building alongside me. Amen.
Carry this today
Willing hearts build walls, even under real opposition.