Tour The Walls

         I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days I set out during the night with a few others. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on.

By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work. (Nehemiah 2:11-16)

 

Nehemiah reaches Jerusalem with his bodyguard of soldiers - not mercenaries, but official, real, live soldiers. They may not have been much better than mercenaries, but they represented the king. It showed that Nehemiah had status.

It’s clear that his arrival disturbed those who hated the Jews, but we’re not really told how the Jews responded. He was with them for three days without telling anyone why he was there. That might not have disturbed the Jews, because theirs was a hospitable culture, accustomed to slow and progressive revelation of business. As a side note, there are people who praise Middle Eastern/Arab cultures for their friendliness in this regard.  If you admire something, they’re likely to give it to you. What they don’t realize is that such is often step one in negotiations. They have given X, or even X, Y, and G to you, so now you should favor them with your business, or repay their hospitality with interest. This isn’t a criticism of the culture just an observation.

 Then he toured the walls at night with just a few people. He wanted to see for himself, not hear the positive or negative exaggerations of the situation. We don’t know how long it took to get the expedition put together, or whether Nehemiah had a clue about city walls, other than what he saw in Persia. But visiting with officials for three days and touring the walls by night probably gave him a good starting education on what he faced as he pursued the vision God had put in his heart.

Yesterday’s post was about being aware of our enemies as we set our goals. Today’s post involves educating ourselves about where we are and where we want to be when the goal is accomplished. It’s about doing research. I can’t tell you how many times I decided to do something and got started before I discovered how much was involved. I once went to a store to try to figure out what to do about the holes my dog (Honey) had chewed in the carpet. I ended up tearing out the carpet, staining the hardwood floors (much more should have been done), painting the bathroom (there’d been no carpet there), painting my office (again, no carpet), Dad’s room (no carpet), the kitchen (no carpet) and my room (where there actually had been carpet!)

Tearing bushes out of the foundation planting has resulted in years of trying to learn to garden and figure out what to put in their place. That has led to foraging, preserving/canning, and raising caterpillars. Let’s not get started on the question of what it would cost to be prepared for emergencies. Prepping is an expensive and ongoing investment. Even something as simple (Ha!) as getting a job and paying one’s bills can be a lot of work. I’ve told people that the most important thing I learned getting my MBA was that I wanted nothing to do with the corporate community. That was a lot of money to spend to put a “Mr. Yuck” sticker on what I had spent the money to join.

As we consider our goals for 2022, we don’t have time to do extensive research on them, but the more we can learn in the next week and a half, the better. One of the first keys is that goals tend to be more expensive, more time-consuming, more demanding, more difficult, and more involved than we tend to imagine before we get started. There will be some price to pay. If nothing else, to do X, you may have to give up Y and those in your household may not want to give up Y. You might not want to give up Y.

I mentioned that I have 1.5 goals figured out. One is “A New View of You” with “You” meaning God. The "point five" is the understanding that a new view of God will change my view of myself, and probably of everyone else. It may require that I change my view of lots of other things. It will probably involve lots of time in reading, meditation, and prayer.

Another somewhat obvious goal is to become a better writer (with the corollary of finishing at least one book.) That will involve more reading, more writing, more money, more time, more pain as I have to give up wrong ideas I hold dear.

It’s not that we have to research every aspect and have every nanosecond of the next year planned in meticulous micro-detail, but the more we know, and the more we prepare, the better the chances of our success.