I’ve been talking with Nehemiah on Sunday afternoons in our newsletter, “A Great Work.” A couple weeks ago, we were talking about how he mobilized a group of people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days. I decided to share an excerpt of that conversation today.

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“Lesson two: Most of the people rebuilding the wall didn’t come with me. They were on location and had been for years.”

“How does that help me in the middle of my project list?”

Nehemiah answered, “What if all around you are people who are anxious to work on parts of the project of rebuilding the same wall you are interested in? What if they’ve just been paralyzed? They are already here. They just need help.”

“But that’s the problem,” I said. “I need help. They might, but I’m who matters at the moment.”

Nehemiah looked at me. “What kind of help do you need?

It took me a little while, but I figured out a list of three or four of the biggest projects facing me right now. I told him the highlights.

“What kind of help can you give?” He asked.

I just stared at him. “What do you mean?”

He was patient. “What do you know how to do, whether it applies to this project or not.”

“According to the Strengthsfinder, my strengths are strategic, ideation, empathy, intellection, connectedness.”

“Does everyone have those strengths? Do other people have the same strengths?”

I thought about it. The whole point of strengths thinking is that we need each other to accomplish the tasks that are bigger than us.

Nehemiah picked up my thoughts: “And there is no way I could rebuild the wall by myself, every rock, every gate. So do what you know how to do. That’s what I did. I knew how to drill down and identify the problem, identify a plan, and tell the people that they wouldn’t be disgraced any more. I gave them hope. It’s what leaders do. So rather than focusing on the long list, start looking for the things that you can do as part of the list and how those things might help the people already on the ground.

“One last thing. In my case, they needed to know that God hadn’t forgotten them. You might want to include that in what you are saying to the people around you. They might need to be reminded that God is involved.”

But something bothered me. “How was God’s involvement so clear to you?”

He smiled. “Remember that four month prayer? Remember the king story? The fact that I was standing in Jerusalem at all was pretty clear evidence to me that God was involved.”

“Okay. So I’m good. Different people have different gifts and leaders have to lead. But why did you have to make this Bible chapter list?”

He walked up to the kitchen and turned on the stove. It was time to switch to tea.

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Here’s the whole conversation: Nehemiah and his team

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