What do you want to be when you grow up?
What are you passionate about?
What do you want to do?

We ask these questions even of small children, yet many adults can hardly provide answers. The waffling answers that come particularly from adults are unsettling but not uncommon. I have adopted a habit of my dad’s in specifically asking the second question — and I often ask it as a leading point of conversation with someone new: what is your passion?! This either becomes an awkward conversational shuffle or a locked-in opportunity for heart-to-heart connection. An answer I heard recently from someone was that their entire life’s purpose was…something that someone else needed to do, whenever that someone else had time to get it done? It could be that I had startled this person with too intense a question after their bland conversation opener, yet I found I didn’t know quite how to respond to that description of a Great Work.

From the time I was tiny, I have loved to answer those burning questions. “I am going to be a wife and a mother and write books” — the response fell naturally from my lips, and I wasn’t fazed by the scoffing of other children or the surprise of adults. Jesus and I have always talked about a life of full-time ministry — because isn’t that what life is? I’d never known anything other than serving and loving well in the communities that are my home. I wanted to accomplish Great Work — because it was the only reality I’d ever known.

There is a craving within the human heart for purpose. We long to not only do something valuable but to know that we have value. It is into this place of deeply designed wanting that we stuff distractions to satisfy the needing. But only a Great Work can truly satisfy.

I sometimes wonder if there is anything else in nature as readily distractable as humans. If there is, I have not yet found it. How so many of us design our days around a series of endless distractions is both fascinating and disturbing. We yield to the press of time and seasons — or we feel nothing at all, absorbed in a private world of nominal details. And the Great Work is left as rubble within the reach of our hands.

Glacial lakes and rivers abound near my beloved home, and each entry is a shock of its own. One’s body scrambles to regulate to the intensity of the temperature, and though sometimes the shivering ceases, there is an abiding cold that should not be ignored with the passing of time. If you have ever jumped into icy water, you know. That unexpected cold plunge for me was the shock of four unanticipated years being told that the Great Work did not matter — and that I would never, could never be part of it again. Even as the Great Work stood before me in stark beauty, I stood shivering in the wake of such chilling and terrible misunderstanding. I was asked to give it all up. “Come down!” was the message I received. The Great Work was the only thing I couldn’t give.

“Therefore pay careful attention to how you conduct your life — live wisely, not unwisely. Use your time well, for these are evil days. So don’t be foolish, but try to understand what the will of the Lord is. ” ~ Ephesians 5:15-16

Nehemiah was a regular man living the most regular life possible in a series of distressing circumstances — and he found plenty of favor doing it. Nehemiah didn’t write of himself as being a person committed in faithful obedience to the Lord — but his words and actions made that obvious. The harsh reality is that Nehemiah was in exile with God’s people after their disobedience made them captives of a foreign nation and separated them from their inheritance. (There are always consequences for our choices, and God had been specific about what those consequences would be.) Nehemiah was favored in a place in which there should have been none to be found. When Nehemiah received a report about the measure of the devastation to his homeland, his first response was prayer and fasting (Neh. 1:4). That alone is easily enough of a focus, and while we are often satisfied with only that effort, Nehemiah was just getting started. He concluded his time of deep intercession by asking the Lord’s help in “winning…compassion” from the foreign king — because, oh yeah, Nehemiah was actually the guy who was with the king every day as his personal attendant (Neh. 1:11). Nehemiah was about to leverage not only his own livelihood but also his very life for the need of his people. A Great Work needed doing, and so he set himself to it.

Rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem wasn’t the only work that needed doing. The temple needed rebuilt, the people needed brought back from exile, and the entire nation needed restored. Do you ever feel the weight of obligations and options upon your shoulders? So many cares, so many needs…But Nehemiah was committed to a Great Work well beyond the scope of merely restoring a wall. Ezra and Zerubbabel were working on the temple and religious revival (Ezra 3:1-2, 8; 7:25-28) — restoring the heart of worship in the community was important, right? Esther was a contemporary of this exilic era who was placed suddenly as queen in one of the foreign king’s courts “for such a time as this” (Es. 4:14): to become a voice for the safety and sanctity of her people from the innermost workings of the palace. Work could have happened in that place of palace favor Nehemiah already held. Nehemiah could have glommed on to the valid vision of the rebuilt temple. If all Nehemiah wanted was work, there was plenty to be found. There is a distinction, however, between what is pressing and what is important, between the convenient and the courageous. You see, the Great Work is not about glamour. It isn’t about recognition or visibility. It isn’t even about the size of the Great Work, because the scale cannot define the scope. It is about your willingness to be present in obedient dedication to its completion.

“Let’s rebuild the wall.”
~ Nehemiah to his countrymen (Neh. 2:17)

Let’s rebuild the wall — in the midst of the rubble of the glory that once was. Let’s rebuild the wall — in a time when hands and backs are going to be the primary tools. Let’s rebuild the wall — in the midst of our enemies. Let’s rebuild the wall — at the end of a homeward journey that never should have begun in the first place but that is going to be redeemed. And let’s not just rebuild some of it — let’s rebuild the entirety of the wall to surround the city. Let’s rebuild the wall, because now we can all see “the gracious hand of my God that had been upon me” — and we will complete this Great Work with zealous energy (Neh. 2:18).

So the Great Work began: the walls of Jerusalem would be restored. Oh, the honors of leadership! The joys of a massive group project in the sweltering sun! The organization of it all, the minute details and precise measurements — the lurking enemies spreading vicious gossip within and without, making a mockery of God’s people. Amidst the challenges Nehemiah set himself to victorious prayer even as they worked. Thus, they “kept building the wall, which was soon joined together and completed to half its height all the way around; because the people worked with a will” (Neh. 4:6). As the recounting progresses in the fourth chapter, the people equipped themselves with tools in one hand and weapons in the other, rotating guard duties to maintain a vigilant watch over the Great Work. They went nowhere unprepared.

“Stay sober! Stay alert! Your enemy, the Adversary, stalks about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Stand against him, firm in your trust, knowing that your brothers throughout the world are going through the same kinds of suffering.” ~ 1 Peter 5:8-9

It was not a beautiful set of circumstances — it was hard. The people squabbled and threats abounded; and Nehemiah was in charge of all of it. Yet he spoke of the abundance of his daily table that fed so many, without his claiming even his earned wages and without his burdening the people in his care (5:14-19). He mediated with godly wisdom and justice to guide the people (5:1-13). Nehemiah continually assessed the situation, night and day, keeping the plans until the time was right (2:11-16), and remained connected in continuous conversation with God — because he knew the favor in which he operated.

“This is a great work, and it is spread out; we are separated on the wall, one far from another. But wherever you are, when you hear the sound of the shofar, come to that place, to us. Our God will fight for us!” ~ Nehemiah to his countrymen (4:19-20)

Then the enemies (ones who would not have been present had God’s people obeyed the FIRST time) heard reports of the nearly-finished wall. Walls meant security. Walls meant opportunity. Walls of protection were a threat to the surrounding nations. So they set a trap. They lied. They smeared Nehemiah’s name at home and abroad, even to the sponsoring foreign king. They connived and gossiped and plotted. Shocking. “Come down,” was their cloying message, filled with the distraction of threats, of a ruined reputation, and of the disdain of others. Nehemiah knew better:

“And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?” ~ Nehemiah to Those Guys (6:3, KJV)

Four times this scenario repeated itself — four times Nehemiah refused the distraction. The fifth effort deepened animosity into a wider game of political intrigue: they accused Nehemiah of plotting rebellion and attempting to overthrow surrounding nations by declaring himself king. “Just come down and talk with us, Nehemiah. We can sort this out…” It was the perfect storm: visceral urge to combat threats to the stalwart restoration efforts, churning with the sickening temptation to prideful self-preservation — national and personal legacy. Nehemiah yielded to none of it. He called out their deception for what it was: “They were just trying to scare us, thinking, ‘This will sap their strength and keep them from working'” (6:9). The second part of the verse holds perhaps my favorite prayer of Scripture. Not a prayer to improve the circumstances. Not to remove the suffering. Not to fix other people’s opinions. Simply:

“But now, God, increase my strength!”
~ prayer of Nehemiah (6:9)

Nehemiah knew what he had set himself to. There were other pressing — even other good — works to be done. He knew the Great Work, and he refused to be distracted from it. Those were invited into the Great Work who were willing to labor alongside, “[holding] their loads with one hand and [carrying] a weapon in the other” (4:17). And those who refused to participate, who cultivated a life rooted in the distractions and cares of the world around them? “So the wall was finished…in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about it and the surrounding nations became afraid, our enemies’ self-esteem fell severely; because they realized that this work had been accomplished by our God” (6:15-16). Nehemiah knew a truth so simple that it can seem challenging to live out: there is no time for distractions or those who cause them.

Increase my strength, because I am doing a great work and cannot come down.

While they were still busying themselves with day-to-day needs, Jesus told His disciples, “My food is to do what the One who sent me wants and to bring His work to completion” (John 4:34). There is no time to waste on bickering, gossip, or professional and social maneuverings. In directing young Timothy regarding pastoral duties, Paul urges, “…[S]tay on in Ephesus, so that you may order people who are teaching a different doctrine to stop. Have them stop devoting their attention to myths and never-ending genealogies; these divert people to speculating instead of doing God’s work, which requires trust (1 Tim. 1:3-4, emphasis mine). Other translations describe this wrong devotion as “ministering questions” rather than ministering Christ. There is not time to waste on relationships in which people insist you must come down in order to be more pleasing or to avoid suffering; choose the people who come with hammer and weapon in hand, ready to be on the wall. There is no time to waste on petty agendas and political arguments — instead, Great Work requires a reminder “to submit to the government and its officials, to obey them, to be ready to do any honorable kind of work, to slander no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be friendly, and to behave gently towards everyone” (Titus 3:1-2). There is not time to waste with doom-scrolling, trolling, or “realities” that are less than real; Paul decries this, telling the Church, “We hear that some of you are leading a life of idleness — not busy working, just busybodies! We command such people — and in union with the Lord Jesus urge them — to settle down, get to work, and earn their own living. And you brothers who are doing what is good, don’t slack off” (2 Thes. 3:11-13). Do a great work, and don’t come down.

There is not time to waste on good work that is meant to be the Great Work of others — you can always be ready with your “yes,” but be just as ready with your simple “no” when good works become a drain or a distraction from your Great Work. There is no time to be wasted with being broken and traumatized –read more on this topic in Arise and Thresh. There is no time to waste because the harvest is ready — and we as the reapers honor those who have sown by showing our readiness to bring in the harvest (John 4:35-38). I do not have time to waste on speculation and the ministry of questions. I only have time for the ministry of Jesus. It’s a great work, and I cannot come down. The ministry of Jesus is life and strength and wholeness. It is family; it is the Bride of Christ. It is truth and healing and abundance. If those aren’t aspects that we engage with our words, thoughts, and actions, the work will never be Great.

That vast wall wasn’t rebuilt by hand in fifty-two days because people kept getting off it to go manage other affairs. I am not telling you to wear dirty clothes because there’s not time to do laundry. I’m not telling you to not go to your job because the work isn’t “great” enough. I not telling you to ignore your familial responsibilities because they are getting you “down.” I am telling you that the focus of your time, attention, and energy matters. Do a great work, and don’t come down.

Great Work can’t happen if you aren’t on the wall of the life to which God has called you, watchful and committed to the labor. It starts with connection to the Giver of Great Work — because Great Work begins with the life of Jesus at work within you. Then comes the opportunity for Great Work: every way in which the Kingdom of Heaven may be advanced with furious fervor (Matt. 11:12). And with this force we press forward into a reality where the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth “as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14). In every action and with every breath, our prayer becomes:

Increase my strength, because I am doing a great work and cannot come down.

May your strength be increased for the Great Work that is before you, dear hearts. Cast off every distraction that calls you down and every weight that hinders you. Embrace every grace that calls you to the wall, and live with your eyes watchful for the things that matter. Let’s rebuild the wall, beloveds.