Next to them,
the men of Tekoa repaired another section, from the great projecting tower to
the wall of Ophel.
I learned
from a very special mentor back in college that a leader is most successful
when the work continues even without him. So last month, before I left for my sister’s
graduation in Manila, I made sure I delegated the children’s ministry tasks to
competent people. Receiving no calls that weekend, I was confident all went
well as prayed for. It did. Except for that detail that the teacher assigned
for the evening service had a surprise guest and another willingly took her
place to attend to the kids. The latter had all the reasons not to do it: she
already taught that morning, she also needed to attend the service, she had a
full day already, and she still had wife-y responsibilities when she gets home.
But she didn’t use all those valid excuses to avoid working extra. She didn’t
even complained after or brag about her sacrifices. She just did it with her
whole heart - - and with a right heart.
Chapter 3 of
Nehemiah was a lengthy read, especially because it’s an account of hard-to-pronounce
names and i-have-no-idea-where locations.
The long and short of it was these remnants were called by God through Nehemiah’s
leadership to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls. From priests to goldsmiths, rulers to
commoners, fathers, sons, even daughters, all worked as one to complete the
task. Aside from Baruch who zealously
repaired a section, my reading highlighted the men of Tekoa too. The verse
above was the second mention of their names, meaning, this was already an extra
work for them. Earlier in verse 5, they were next to Zadok working near the
Fish Gate and then we read these words: ‘though their leaders refused to work
with the construction supervisors’. But despite the lack of expected help,
these men of Tokea were able to finish
their double-load, even faster than others, and willingly walked some more
extra miles to help where it was needed.
We all wished
to be regarded as good Samaritans. We are compassionate people and if really
needed, will extend help to those hurting. But of course, everyone understands that
sometimes we also have family issues, and have tight budgets, and have very important meetings, and can’t be Superman all the time. Better yet, isn’t
‘I’ll pray for you’ godly enough? Why
extend another hand? Why walk an extra mile? But can you imagine God clicking
autopilot after creation? What He gave us was perfection that could last a
thousand generation. But when we chose sin and the consequences gave birth to
more rottenness, He didn’t say ‘Not my problem guys. I did my part.’ Instead He
sent Jesus to take that painful extra mile to save us all. And although it was enough, His grace still
overflows. Note His answers to our prayers. His timely protection. His daily provision.
These are all extra love. And what do we do with our extra supplies? Yes, we
give it out : )
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