To follow God will always cost you something in the short term. In the long run, you get far more than you ever give, but not so in the here and now. We tell ourselves the lie, and we live it out, that we can have both, but Scripture doesn't portray it like that. Scripture tells us that we can have joy and peace in the short run, but we have to give something up -- the hard part is realizing that what we get in the long run is so rich that it's worth sacrificing for, and then, and only then, do we get the short term as well.
I wonder if any of us would've ever known about Nehemiah's sacrifices if there hadn't been the scandals with his own people. He lifts this up as a way to encourage the people to sacrifice, but it reads like he's been doing this for a while and only now tells the people about it. So maybe we all need to make sacrifices and not publicize them, but do them just because they're the right thing to do. There aren't many 'anonymous' donations made -- and nobody gets a university building named after an anonymous donor!
It's hard to sacrifice. Maybe Nehemiah is working so hard on the wall and has such a big picture vision that it's second nature for him to do so in order to help complete the wall. Maybe he's got such a perfect vision of God's justice that he can't help but sacrifice. I think it's more likely that he loves his people so much that he wants the best for them. That's what brought him back, and that's what drives him.
May we all be able to love so deeply and so richly.
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