It's been a long weekend here at the dorms. A long, boring weekend. Over half of the guys went home or out of town, and the girls are kept constantly busy with birthday parties and the like.

Luckily, I had a sermon to prepare for, since I was preaching this last Sunday.

In the sermon, I talked about Nehemiah, and how it would have been incredibly easy for him to sit back and not take any initiative even when his people in Jerusalem were left basically defenseless and open to attack, the elements, etc. Nehemiah, from just a casual conversation with his brother, learned that the city gates and walls of Jerusalem had been broken down, destroyed, and burned. It was then that Nehemiah began constantly crying out and praying to God for his people. Then, he made the decision in his mind that he was going to go rebuild the city. Sounds pretty heroic, right? It sounds heroic until you remember that, "Oh yeah, Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer!" Sure, it may not have been a place of high honor or dignity, but Nehemiah probably lived in the palace, hung out with royalty, had access to the best food, the best drink, got to look at the most beautiful women... all the earthly pleasures one could want. But Nehemiah felt convicted that he had to go back to Jerusalem and rebuild. 

As I read Nehemiah's story and his prayer, I'm convicted because he sees where action needs to happen, and he steps up to the plate. He sees something that needs to be done, and he does it. It's a little embarrassing to think back to all the times that I've asked God to send workers into the many different harvest fields. "Lord, there's hurting people in Haiti. There's dying people in Africa. There's children suffering from violence in the inner city. There's... (insert messy, lost world scenario here). God, you need to send somebody to them. Send somebody to go help them. Not me, but sendsomebody God." And it's funny to me how we exclude ourselves. We rule ourselves out. Nehemiah didn't do that. He saw what needed to be done and took care of it. 

I wonder how the world around us would be if we had an attitude more like Nehemiah's.

--Alex