We can implement our ministry plans if we deal with the rubbish that is in the way (4:10).

After the work was half-finished (4:6), the people began to say, “The strength of the burden bearers if failing, and there is too much rubbish so that we are unable to work on the wall.” Notice that the people began to notice and to complain about the rubbish after they had done half of the work.

We are in the middle of some important things. We are in the middle of establishing the Team Ministry approach. We are in the middle of trying to establish a community center across the street. We are in the middle of trying to put our ministry to students on solid footing. We are in the middle of trying to become more hands-on in our missions efforts. It is when we are in the middle of the work, when the work starts getting hard, when we can almost see the goal line but not quite, that we start noticing the rubbish that is in the way.

In the case of 5th century B.C. Jerusalem, the rubbish was from the remains of the wall that had been torn town when the Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem 140 years earlier. Some rubbish lies around for a very long time! And sometimes it needs to be cleared away and sometimes it needs to be worked around.

All of the rubbish with which the Jews had to deal was not physical. None of ours is.

They needed and we need to deal with the rubbish of fear. The people of Nehemiah’s time were afraid of the situation in which they found themselves. They were also afraid of the threats of their enemies to do them harm.

With what fears do we need to deal? Perhaps we need to deal with the fear of failure. Some of us may be thinking that even our best efforts will not lead to positive results. Remember, though, that one way to overcome fear is to take action. To express fear without trying to help address the fear-provoking situation is not helpful. As I said earlier, we need less talk and more action. When you think, “I’m afraid for the future of our church,” let your next thought be, “What can I do to help in this situation?” and let your next step be taking some action to help! Fear should mobilize us and not paralyze us.

They needed and we need to deal with the rubbish of adopting idealism rather than realism. Irrational fear says, “Things are so bad that there’s nothing we can do” and that leads to inaction. Irrational idealism says, “Things will be ok if we’ll just have faith, even if we don’t do anything.” If we aren’t careful, we’ll fail to deal with reality and instead attempt to live in fantasyland and if we do that, I suspect we won’t live happily ever after.

The people of Nehemiah’s time knew that they were threatened by enemies. Nehemiah told the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the LORD, who is great and awesome . . . ” (4:14). We need to hear those same words; we also need not to be afraid and to remember that the Lord is great and awesome and that, as the Bible affirms over and over, He will help His people.

But look at the rest of the statement that Nehemiah made to them: “ . . . and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” And Nehemiah organized the people to defend themselves. Irrational rationality says, “We can take care of ourselves without the Lord’s help.” Irrational idealism says, “The Lord will take care of us so we don’t need to do anything.” Faithful realism, which is what we need, says, “The Lord will take care of us so let’s do what we can do to deal with the situation as he would have us to do.”