Nehemiah was not a weak man. But his heart broke when he thought about the plight of his homeland, and he wept like a baby. He was burdened, and his burden drove him to a prolonged time of prayer and fasting.
This eventually led to the formation of a plan, and that plan eventually led to his place in God’s story. He took his plan and turned it into a reality. Without Nehemiah, the city of Jerusalem wouldn’t have been rebuilt. Nehemiah’s name isn’t mentioned in the genealogies of Jesus, but he had a part in preparing the world for the coming of its Messiah.
And it started with a burden.
It’s been that way throughout human history. God gets a person’s attention. That person sees something he doesn’t like about the way things are or the direction things are headed. It gets stuck in the craw, refusing to pass. He finds himself thinking about it throughout the day, turning it over and over in his mind, wondering what he might be able to do about it. He can’t let it go, because it refuses to let go of him.
Sometimes that burden is something that you don’t have the resources to fix. You may know what needs to be done, but you may not have the faintest idea how to get things from where they are to where they should be. What do you do then?
Nehemiah’s concern began to consume him. He became obsessed with what could be, what should be versus what actually was. He saw the gap clearly, and he began to formulate a plan to close it. It changed his life. It changed his appearance. People around him could tell that his mind was elsewhere.
But he didn’t do anything hasty. He didn’t assume that the burden was a green light from God. Neither did he ignore the issue that was tugging on his heart. Instead, he chose to wait, to allow things to percolate for a while, to have this burden give birth to a clear vision and a solid strategy. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything other than pray about the situation until God opened a door for him. But he wanted to make sure he was ready to walk through that door when the time came.
He had passion, but passion is never enough. He began to understand the goal. But neither is having a goal enough. He needed a plan, and that is what he set about discovering.
It started with that burden.
What’s yours? What makes you weep? What makes you pound the table in disgust? What does your mind keep turning over and over? Do you have a burden?
Value that burden. Allow that burden to mature into a moral imperative. Spend time cultivating that passion, stoking it into a full-blown fire. Then ask yourself: Do I have a plan?
Prayer
God of wisdom, Your plans and purposes are lofty and unattainable by human comprehension. Even though the world is in rebellion against You, all that You have planned in Your perfect wisdom will be fully accomplished. It amazes me that You will do this through the choices both of those who know You and those who have rebelled against You. You have given me the dignity of being a moral agent whose decisions will matter. I pray that the choices I make would be in conformity with Your good and acceptable will, and I ask that You would clarify Your desires for me through the burdens and aspirations that You implant within me. May I seek Your guidance and power in transforming these burdens into plans that You inspire so that I will honour Your name by accomplishing what You have prepared for me to do.
In Jesus’s name, Amen
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