Together We Think

Before I spend some time reflecting on the story in the Bible about Nehemiah and how it relates to my (and possibly your) personal journey, I want to start by saying how important I believe it is to find stories and people with which you can relate personally. It has been my experience that comparing and engaging with the stories of others, whether alive or in history helps us discover more about our own journey’s and gives us great traveling partners through the ups and downs of our journey!

OK, enough of the ethereal stuff! Let’s take a look at the life of Nehemiah and how I believe it relates to many of our journey’s. As a quick background, Nehemiah was alive during a time when Jerusalem was destroyed and the nation of Israel was carried into captivity. Nehemiah was blessed enough to find himself serving in the court of the king as the cup bearer and it was through this position that God gave him the opportunity to fulfill a passion and dream…to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

It is with this context as our background that we join Nehemiah on his trip back to survey the city and the walls that surrounded it. In the book of Nehemiah we find the story of his journey.

There are a few things that strike me about his journey:

1. Nehemiah begins his story by mourning and grieving the loss of what was supposed to be: Walls around the city of Jerusalem.
2. Nehemiah goes back to Jerusalem to survey the damaged walls and come up with a plan for how to fix them.
3. After surveying the walls and planning, Nehemiah begins the hard work of rebuilding the walls.
4. There are a lot of challenges in rebuilding the walls, including the mocking and attacks of others.
5. The dream of the rebuilt walls is fulfilled through hard work and teamwork.

Now, I realize at this point that the applications for our lives are so obvious that I probably don’t have to write another word, but let’s go there for a second.

Here are the point by point personal applications for me:

1. There is a “supposed to be” in all of our lives. As we enter into the “broken walls” of our personal story, we realize that much of our brokenness is not what God had intended. Something was done to us or we did something that tore down the walls of our lives and it is painful and hard to see the results.
2. We must begin the process of rebuilding in our lives by first surveying and discovering what has happened and what needs to be done to rebuild.
3. At some point, we must begin to rebuild the broken parts of our lives.
4. We will face challenges and attacks from the enemy who doesn’t want us to become healthy and whole.
5. If we are willing to do the hard work and walk with others who can lead us and encourage us on the journey, we will ultimately, find the healing that God wants to bring to the brokenness in our lives.

In closing, where I find myself right now, is still a bit in the surveying stage. I am doing a little bit of the work of rebuilding, but at times feel stuck in the surveying stage, so my  next step is to move fully into the rebuilding stage. How about you? Where are you in this journey?

Thanks for reading and possibly sharing! Godspeed!

S.