The story is told of a man who heard his daughter and some of her friends arguing loudly in the backyard. After a few moments, he couldn’t stand the sound of it, so he went out and reprimanded her. “But Daddy,” she protested, “we were just playing church.”
Ouch! It’s a sad (but true) statement that the church of Jesus Christ has often been marked more by factions than by fellowship. We can sometimes face more trouble from inside the ranks than we do from outside. Equally sad, we’re not alone in that observation.
As we turn our attention to Nehemiah 5, this is exactly what we see taking place. While they had navigated the antagonists that were outside the walls, they were now facing attacks coming from within. People were struggling to make ends meet, and many of their fellow Jews were taking advantage of them. So Nehemiah had to address this matter of injustice with grace and truth. He listened to the cries of the people, he took time to ponder them, and he responded with Godly wisdom.
Though Nehemiah couldn’t change the conditions under which they were working, he could change the way people responded and treated one another. Thankfully, as he confronted where they were wrong, the people received his words and vowed to change their ways. Doing so, allowed the project to move forward.
That should be the model for us. As we set out to live into God’s plans for our personal lives and church, we must make sure we do everything in our power to work together. We must avoid hitting the “self-destruct button” so that our focus on the work God is calling us to do is not hindered. May God grant us the wisdom and the strength to work together in grace and love so that His Kingdom's purposes are built here in Warsaw and beyond.
