Day 15 - March 9, 2007
Nehemiah 2:1-4
The opportunity for Nehemiah to do something about his dilemma depends, as is often the case, on circumstances beyond his control. In order for him to act, he’ll need what evangelicals often call an ‘open door’. It’s interesting to note, though, that his opportunity comes because the king, for whom he works, notices the change in his countenance. “Why is your face sad, though you are not sick?”
This tells us something significant about Nehemiah. During his time as cupbearer for the king, he was able to keep, not only a passion for his calling and the calling of God’s people, but he held this position, in the midst of ‘unbelievers’ in a winsome way. So strange was it for Nehemiah to have a ‘sad face’ that the king felt the need to ask what was wrong.
I wonder if the same could be said of us? Our culture of ‘authenticity’ sometimes leads us to become so self-absorbed that we become people of the ‘half-empty cup’ – most of the time! I’m not advocating a frothy, shallow, ‘happiness’ as a veneer to cover deep wounds and loss. Rather, I’m simply inviting us all to consider that Jesus invites us to be people who are, overall, characterized by joy because the gift of life in Christ is ours. Like delighted children, this gift baths us with love, forgiveness, the confidence that Jesus is alive in us, and a sense that God is moving history towards an end that is more glorious than our capacity to imagine.
If we’re actually living in the reality of this confidence, then those moments when we acutely feel the distance between what is and what ought to be, our grief and anger, mourning and loss, will be a contrast to the norm, rather than more of the same. It was this very contract which created the ‘open door’ for Nehemiah.
“The joy of the Lord is your strength”
O God of joy and sorrow,
You know that there are times to rejoice and times to mourn, times to laugh and times to cry. Enable us to so live in the good of the inheritance which is ours because of your love, that we become people of joy. As well, grant that we would live with our eyes wide open to the sufferings in our world, to the distance between what is and what can be. We ask that you would sensitize our hearts, as well, to those particular burdens which we’re meant to bear, meant to act upon. May our grief lead, not to self-absorbed pity, but to prayer and, according to your will, action.
posted by Richard Dahlstrom @ 5:05 PM
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