About 70 years after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, Persia took over Babylon and allowed the Jews to resettle Jerusalem. During this time, a Jew named Nehemiah served in the court of a Persian king as a professional food taster, which was a position of great trust. When some of Nehemiah’s friends from Jerusalem visited him, Nehemiah asked how things were going in the holy city. Unfortunately, the news was not good: among other problems, Nehemiah learned that the wall had been “broken down, and the gates thereof [were] burned with fire” (Nehemiah 1:3). Remember that in those days, it was important to have fortifications around your city. God put it into his heart that Nehemiah should return to Jerusalem, where he was to solve problems and lead the effort.
Nehemiah began with this interesting phrase to describe what happened next. He said that God put it into his heart to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem (see Nehemiah 2:12). Remember that phrase—God put it into his heart. Nehemiah followed this prompting, got support from the Persian king, returned to Jerusalem, and began rebuilding the fortification wall. But it wasn’t easy.
Clutter About 469 BC
First, as he started to rebuild the wall the workers said, “There is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall” (Nehemiah 4:10). All the debris from the destruction of the city made it so they couldn’t build—in other words, clutter prevented construction. What God had put into his heart Nehemiah was going to do. Thus the first order of business was to get rid of the rubbish.
Clutter Today
Think for a moment about how that might apply in our lives. Although we do not struggle to rebuild fortifications around a city, a parallel problem prevents many of us from finding peace: we have too much rubbish in our lives. This rubbish can take many forms, including having too much stuff, doing too many activities, and yielding to tons of digital distractions. All these things can be good—but they might not be the best—and they can collectively distract us from our focus on seeking Jesus.
A survey of 752 Christian leaders found that 75 percent of them said the busyness of their lives frequently interfered with the development of their relationship with God. When our goal is connecting with Christ, we often need decreased busyness. Although life sometimes forces busyness upon us (like urgent situations, health emergencies, and so forth), busyness is often a choice. And in the case of parenting, we may choose busyness for our children, multiplying the work to be done.
My wife and I found ourselves in this situation a few years ago. We had five children attending four different schools, plus a toddler at home. Although we were trying to maximize the educational opportunities for each of our children, juggling multiple school carpools on top of piano, violin, tumbling, tennis, soccer, and other activities became unmanageable. And even if we had been able to do it all, was doing it all really the goal? Our lives often felt out of control, and we needed fewer activities, not more. We were so busy with the rubbish that we couldn’t build the wall. The same principle is true with all the things we purchase and store, as well as social media and other digital distractions.
Heart’s Focus
Some of us (myself included) probably think we are spending more time on important things than we actually are. For example, I’ve talked with college students who think they spend a lot of time studying, but when they carefully analyze their time, they find that large portions of their “study time” are consumed by phone checking, social media, and surfing the internet. One young adult who audited his phone time realized that if he kept up his same pace, by the time he was 80 he would have spent over a decade of his life on social media.
I love these words from Sister Michelle D. Craig: “If God speaks in a still, small voice, you and I need to draw close to hear Him. Just imagine what would happen if we were as intent on staying connected with heaven as we are on staying connected to Wi-Fi!” 1 Remember Nehemiah—when God put something into his heart, he recognized it and did it. If we need a voice, so be it. All of us will benefit from President Russell M. Nelson’s invitation. He said, “Take an inventory of how you spend your time and where you devote your energy. That will tell you where your heart is.” 2
Nehemiah faced additional difficulties in rebuilding the wall. People from the neighboring city, Samaria, wanted to stop the wall from being built and devised a plan to harm Nehemiah. They asked Nehemiah to come meet them; their plan was, as the scripture says, “to do [him] mischief” (Nehemiah 6:2). But Nehemiah refused to go. He said, “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 6:3). Again we see that because Jesus put something in his heart, Nehemiah could not be distracted.
Notice what happened next. Nehemiah said, “They sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.” Nehemiah resisted temptation and stayed true to his purpose. Not just once, not twice or three times. But on the fourth time as well. To me this idea of “the fourth time” is a metaphor for consistently staying true to what we know we should do—not just once or twice, but, metaphorically speaking, even on the fourth time.
From Nehemiah we learn that when the Lord plants something in our hearts, it changes how we see the world. It’s a very real way to live with Christ in the present. Could you and I take some time to let the Lord establish the direction in our lives?
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