September 11, 2001. If you were old enough on that date, you can recall exactly where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news of the terrorist attacks. The nation, really the world, became fixated as it watched events unfold live on TV. I was stationed in Turkey. We were immediately locked down and could not leave the base. It was not a fun time.
I was the historian for the 39th Wing and was busy trying to write the semi-annual narrative history of what our unit had accomplished in the first half of 2001, when the attacks in the United States occurred. What is a semi-annual history? I’m glad you asked. It is roughly 100-200 pages of descriptive narrative (and thousands of pages of supporting documents) describing the events and operations of the wing. It involves hours of interviews (which you then must transcribe), collecting many hundreds supporting, primary-sourced documents, attending multiple weekly operational briefings, analyzing all of that data, and finally, sitting down to write a cohesive story of what all those documents and interviews describe. It is a long process. That September day though, a lot changed. Chaos reigned, and it wasn’t long before the “secret” phone rang in my office. This phone was one in which you could talk classified information on, and I occasionally used it when talking to those at higher headquarters. When I answered, it was them, and they had a task for me. I was now, in addition to my regular writing, responsible for collecting documents and writing the history of combat actions of a new warfare center that activated as a response of the events of September 11th. By day, I continued writing the semi-annual history of the 39th Wing, and by night, I interviewed war operation planners and worked on writing the history of the warfare center. I was being pushed and pulled into two different directions, and I had to find a way to prioritize my available time. Right now, the manly thing to say would be, “Sleep? Hah, who needs sleep. That’s for the weak.” But to be honest, it really was like that. Not a lot of sleep occurred for several weeks following the September 11thattacks.
Nehemiah looks over the ruins of the city and now has to make the plan. He will be pushed and pulled over the next several weeks. There are daytime projects and nighttime projects. There are literally hundreds of epic-sized things that need to be done. Each one begs to be tackled first. Now, thousands and thousands of leaders have stood in those same shoes…overwhelming odds…stretched to their limits…asking themselves what task they should check off first…perhaps even asking themselves what they have gotten themselves into…perhaps debating walking away from the situation altogether. Nehemiah certainly felt the crushing weight of all those challenges. He stands looking at piles of stones. What once had been a thriving city, now looks like the living room floor after a two-year old obliterates the largest Lego kit ever seen by man. The city was now in a billion pieces. It would be so easy to walk away.
I can’t imagine.
Actually, I can. Nearly two years ago, an EF-4 tornado ripped through a community very near to us. I spent several days working cleanup in various neighborhoods that were hit. I remember walking through one, ending up in a section where the homes were all gone. This memory is lasered in my mind. I stood on this one particular property and was astonished that there was no evidence of a house ever being there, except for the basement that you could now look directly into. And then I walked over a slight ridge, and there were the remnants of what was probably several houses…in a billion pieces. I know what you’re thinking…“Really? A billion?” Yes, a billion. And now my job was to comb through those billion pieces to find a few keepsake items worth saving. It was overwhelming. I’m not ashamed to admit that I stood there and wept. I completely understand the psychological trauma of those who do this for a living. Where do you start? What pile do you attack first? So yeah, if you are not committed it’s easy to walk away.
Nehemiah doesn’t have that luxury though. If he doesn’t take it on, who will? Nobody has risen to the occasion. No one else raised their hand. No, Nehemiah is the one chosen by God to see it done. The walls, gates, enforcements, and residences…all of it…need rebuilt. Each project is a headache. So, Nehemiah does what a great leader does…pop some Tylenol and make a plan that prioritizes the problems that lay in front of him. He determines safety and security is priority number one and needs to be addressed immediately. So the walls and gates must come before anything else. No doubt there were those present that argued for their house to be rebuilt first. “Where am I supposed to lay down my head after a hard day’s work?” “I’ve given more than my share of offerings at the temple.” “Don’t you know who I am? I’m the mayor.” And on and on. That push and pull. But, what good would that be if the enemy could just walk right up and destroy it again. No, the walls and gates must be priority one. The Bible says, “So they strengthened their hands for the good work.”
Nehemiah then creates teams of builders to get after the wall building and gate restoration. More on this next time, but it is important to note that leaders don’t just let people go off and do whatever feels good. No, leaders organize the crowd into teams skilled at the work that needs to be done. If not done this way, you end up with all your plumbers in one group working on HVAC systems, and your HVAC pros working on excavating trenches and pouring concrete. Utter chaos. Again, Nehemiah understands what needs to be done so he creates jobsite teams to get the work done. As the walls are rebuilt, gates are being restored. There were 10 of them around the city…the Sheep, Fish, Old, Valley, Dung (lol), Fountain, Water, Horse, East, and Muster. Each one had a specific purpose, and those working on them were skilled with understanding.
I will leave this here until next time, as we see Nehemiah move from the planning and organizing, to further strategizing. We will see that Nehemiah faced challenges that were more than inanimate brick and stone. He came up against flesh and blood opposition as well. Old Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem…the three musketeers of discord.
Faith, Leadership, and History 