Issue 441
Getting Real
This WORKTALKweekly is part of the Nehemiah’s Mind series we are still in the section concerning the speech of his life.
I want to invite you to get real. The irony is that for most of your life you may well be faced with being real on a daily basis.
Then there are, for some reasons, times when the blinds go down, the lights go dim and your eyes close off. In these scenarios you have trouble seeing what is in front of you, hearing what is around you and, most dangerous of all, knowing what is inside of you.
So here are several versions of the same question to help you get real. How do you react when your faults are exposed? How do you respond when your mistakes are pointed out? How do you handle a deep, yet authentic rebuke?
I don’t know anyone who likes that. Some react in anger – allowing a desire to silence the challenging voice to overwhelm them or even harbour a desire to destroy it. Others refuse to see the truth of the exposure, yet others seek to ignore it. The wiser ones seem to engage with it.
In business, we know from extensive research, that the one who exposes faults has an eighty percent chance of losing their job. They also risk losing reputation, livelihood and re-employability. Senior office holders in any institution resent the rebuke of the rebel.
So please get real with Nehemiah’s speech. This is no fireside chat. He is blowing the whistle, telling the truth and exposing the mess.
He has already challenged everyone to see what trouble they are all in (including himself). He now clarifies his point.
Before we let him speak, remember who he is – a cupbearer – a high-ranking servant, but a servant nonetheless. He has no track record in any of the specialities he is about to tackle or any of the areas he is about to challenge.
Nehemiah uses two powerful words – ‘ruins’ and ‘disgrace’ – to paint his word picture for all to see. “Jerusalem lies in ruins” and “we are in disgrace” underpin his uncompromising message.
Check out his mind via his words and you will discover how he uses these two words to different effect. “Ruins” he wants them to see and recognize the trouble. “Disgrace” he wants them to see and desire to get out of it. He wants them to feel sorrow, real guilt and inspiration to change. Combining the motivation of sorrow and solutions, he is drawing in whole people and whole audiences.
As always with Nehemiah you need to look into his prayers to find out more information about his mind. He sees the roots of this ruin and disgrace, not in the invaders, but in the insiders. In his prayers he identifies wickedness, disobedience and immorality as the corrosive elements that have destroyed Jerusalem and its people from within.
You might like to notice this aspect of Nehemiah’s thinking. He was clear that it was not external armies that ruined Jerusalem, the corruption came from the inside out.
Many organizations reorganize, restructure and go to battle in the marketplace not realizing that their problems were always internal. They re-brand, double their marketing activities, create a new website and work hard but their inner culture, ethics or core values remain faulty. They rush to sales but forget their product is substandard. Nehemiah was clear: it was not the Assyrians, Babylonians or Persians but Israelites that had ruined Jerusalem. Nehemiah’s prayer shows you this truth but also points to the inner reconstruction required.
Nehemiah’s speech contains a high risk strategy. It is a display of enormous courage. At this moment in his speech he could be stoned, lynched or stabbed to death. This would be the way of the world, and it still is, but Nehemiah was right and he knew it. Somebody had to get real and tell it as it was and Nehemiah had already decided, four months ago, that the somebody would be him. He did not come in anger or vitriol but with passion and tears.
His mind, however, was crystal clear. This city, which for hundreds of years should have been the seat of civilized covenant-based living, the centre of permanent praise and honour, the capital of financial justice and business integrity, lies in ruins. This city was a gift from God, bathed in the blood of pioneering ancestors and stained with sacrifice. This was supposed to be your house, your place of safety, and a beacon to others of the grace of God, and it lies in ruins and you are in disgrace.
The pain in Nehemiah’s mind as he spoke these words would be almost unbearable, but the resolve to speak them had been forged on his knees and he knew he risked the assassin’s spear.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of Nehemiah’s own tears at this point. Slow-forward to the same city in the 30s AD and you find the Mind of minds weeping over Jerusalem as He says how often He would have gathered Jerusalem as a hen gathers chicks but they would not, or crying out my God my God why have you forsaken me?
Successful whistleblowers speak through tears, prayers, questions and sorrow even if they are angry. (By the way, even if they are vitriolic they may still be right!)
You are now about to see a turning point in his speech where he moves from diagnosis to cure – but it would be unwise to move to quickly.
What can you now harvest from the mind-field of Nehemiah this week? It depends where you are in the drama. If you are in the crowd, be very careful to listen to courageous whistleblowers. They often bring with them profound truth. If you seek to silence or destroy them you go the way of the mob. This is never the way of the Kingdom. Better to let the light shine on your darkness than seek to snuff out the light.
If you are the one with passion to bring out the truth, do it with tears and courage forged in prayer, not out of spite or vitriol. You may be right, but not righteous in your anger.
If you are in leadership and an unlikely challenger turns up, notice that this speech of Nehemiah’s life was not just a defining moment for him, it was for the listeners as well. How they handled this speech would determine all their destinies. This is no cosy, cuddly coffee and chat. This is the time for them all to get real. Nehemiah knew that in his bones and felt it in his tears.
As you have been reading the last editions of WORKTALKWeekly you may have noticed that we have been taking this speech very slowly. Nehemiah’s mind was quick but he was not going to be shallow. Four months and a lifetime was layered over hundreds of years to get to this point.
Here is my last suggestion. To get real in the way Nehemiah is getting real in his words pouring out from his mind, you need to dig-deep into the darkness. If you rush from problem to solution you will not find solutions but another similar problem. Nehemiah has faced and confessed sin, wickedness, disobedience, ruin and disgrace head on and at a profound level.
His body is not far from the site of Solomon’s temple and his mind is not far from Solomon’s proverb “he who answers before listening – that is his folly and shame” (Proverbs 18:13). Nehemiah’s mind did not rush to the answer before listening to the voices of the spirit. Neither will ours – I hope!
Nehemiah Chapter 2:16-17
16 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.
17 Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace. ”
Nehamiah 1:6
6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you.
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Geoff Shattock
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