Eyes Opened, Hearts Broken, Feet Hardened
2020 has been a year that has had the potential to overwhelm and exhaust us all. For some this year hasn’t merely been a disruption, but has involved sickness, loss and grief. Some are struggling with mental health conditions, loneliness and job losses. In June the World Bank estimated that 71 million people globally will be pushed into extreme poverty because of the impact of Covid-19. It has been so encouraging to see the Church responding with care and compassion to those in need, offering practical and spiritual support and adapting to a rapidly changing landscape. This may have felt like the longest year, but as Christians we’re called to keep pressing on, to persevere in our faith and in being the Church that reaches out to a hurting world. Paul’s exhortation to the Galatians about enduring is particularly apt for us as Christians now, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9). In these uncertain times, how do we ensure that we persevere and not become weary in doing good? I believe we can take some lessons from the book of Nehemiah to help us answer this question.
We are introduced to Nehemiah in Persia; he is a Jew who holds a prestigious role in the royal household. After 70 years in exile many of the Jews had returned home to Judah to find the city of Jerusalem in ruins. By the time we meet Nehemiah the temple had been rebuilt but the city walls still lay destroyed, leaving the city completely exposed to enemies.
Eyes Opened
Nehemiah’s brother and some others travel from Judah and upon enquiring about Jerusalem Nehemiah finds out about the state of his beloved city (Nehemiah 1:3). His eyes are opened to the situation. But Nehemiah doesn’t just hear from others, when he goes to Jerusalem - which we can read about in chapter 2 - he sees for himself the ruins of Jerusalem’s walls. In order to persevere in this season, as Christians we need to keep our eyes open to what is happening in our communities, seeing not just Covid-19 statistics and information, but the struggles of those around us and the effects of the pandemic. God also calls His people to have our eyes open spiritually, to see situations and people as He does, to hold unswervingly to the hope that we will reap a harvest – that across our communities and our nation eyes will be opened to the love and goodness of God. As soon as Nehemiah hears about the state of Jerusalem he prays for days and seeks God about the situation (Nehemiah 1:4). It is through spending time in God’s presence that we can have a vision for what is possible. We persevere as we see not only what is, but what could and should be in individual lives and across our nation.
Hearts Broken
Once Nehemiah learns about the city ruins in Jerusalem he weeps, he is moved by what he has heard. The sheer scale of the pandemic and associated injustices in our world have the capacity to render our hearts hard through being overwhelmed and feeling helpless. But if we are to model our lives after Jesus we can have soft hearts – broken hearts that are filled with compassion. Jesus was moved with compassion for the crowds that followed Him and often when He healed people we see that He was moved with compassion for them. When Jesus goes to Bethany after the death of Lazarus, He sees Mary who is weeping and is Himself deeply moved and weeps too (John 11:33, 35). God gives us a heart of flesh that needs to remain soft to Him and to those in need. William Booth, who founded the Salvation Army with his wife Catherine, was asked what the secret of his success was, to which he answered: “I will tell you the secret. God has had all there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I, men with greater opportunities. But from the day I got the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of all Jesus Christ could do with them, on that day I made up my mind that God would have all of William Booth there was.” We keep our hearts soft by ensuring we are filled with compassion and love of God - and love always perseveres (1 Corinthians 13:7).
Feet Hardened
When Nehemiah prays to God about the city walls, he prays with the expectation that God will use him in the answer to his prayer. He asks for God’s favour with the king because he has in mind what he is going to ask of the king so that he can go and help the people of Israel. Perseverance by its very nature requires action. This is what we see Nehemiah do: in chapter 2 we read that he leaves for Jerusalem and inspires the people to join him in rebuilding the walls - he takes action. Nehemiah perseveres in the face of repeated opposition, challenge and injustice. Missionary Jackie Pullinger once said, “God wants us to have soft hearts and hard feet. The trouble with so many of us is that we have hard hearts and soft feet”. Having hard feet means being prepared to go to those who are hurting; to reach out to those outside of the church; to respond to the need we see around us. The author of Hebrews encourages us to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1); perseverance and movement go hand in hand. Just as Nehemiah persisted in his rebuilding vision, we need to harden our feet as we go in response to the need in our communities. The momentum of perseverance inspires us to keep going, to keep acting, to keep reaching out.
None of us know for certain what the future holds, but in uncertain and challenging times we can persevere by having our eyes opened, our hearts broken, and our feet hardened. Let us not grow weary in doing good for there is a harvest coming that will see this nation changed.
This article first appeared in the Evangelical Alliance’s IDEA magazine (Nov/Dec 2020 issue).
Catherine De Souza, 31st December 2020
