Are we willing to do the work?

We live in a world where we're expected to specialise in the type of work that we do so that there will be efficiency in our workplace.  Because this is something that is so prevalent, we simply bring this approach into our spiritual and church lives as well.  Whenever we are asked if we would like to be involved in a particular ministry, for many of us, our first response tend to be, "Oh, I don't have the skillset to be able to do this particular ministry."

I was reading the book of Nehemiah, when I came across this verse in Nehemiah 3:8, "Uzziel son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired the next section; and Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, made repairs next to that. They restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall."  You see Nehemiah felt called to rebuild Jerusalem and its city wall. So he got everyone who came back to Israel, and those who were already living there  to help him with the task of rebuilding the wall.  Here we see that Uzziel, who is a goldsmith pitched in with the building of the wall.  So did Hananiah, a perfume maker.  We don't see Uzziel saying, "Hang on, my skillset is to make things out of gold.  Ask me to do anything with gold and I will gladly do it.  But building a wall?  Well, what if the wall I build is crooked?"  We don't have any record of him saying that.  What we do have, is a record of his willingness to help with the building of the wall, even though this was not his area of expertise!

So the next time someone taps you on the shoulder and asks you to do a particular ministry, remember Uzziel the goldsmith and Hananiah the perfume maker who were willing to help with the ministry of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, which clearly was not their area of expertise.

Rev. Johannes Suwantika