Changing the World One Front Yard at a Time
When we moved here two years ago, the number of people who made a daily habit of walking their dogs or simply walking up and down the street with a friend shocked me. But their habit intrigued me and enticed me to go outdoors seeking something I wasn’t sure of. Slipping the harness over his head and around his shoulders, I stepped out the front door with our pup, Oreo. His excitement pushed him ahead and pulled me along behind, barely able to keep up.
My writing desk sits tucked in the corner before a large window in our living room, taking up more than half the wall space and letting natural light (my favorite kind) spill across the couch and coffee table and onto my lap. Looking out from my place at the desk, I watch the familiar people walk their dogs at the same time every day. I watch the young couple four doors down from our house pull an empty wagon behind them, stopping and starting as their small daughter peers curiously at the blades of grass in our yard. She touches it slowly, feeling it between her fingers before standing back up ready to move forward.
Small staggering feet lead me out the front door and into the waiting green of the front yard, where we find dandelions, white clover, and monkey grass. Gathering them up along with small sticks and twigs, his hands push them into mine to overflowing with green things and dirt and mulch. Swift as the summer rain, the pup snatches a gnarled and twisted root from his little hands running his looping path through the yard.
This is summer, when the grass turns green and there are more weeds than true zoysia. When his little eyes glimmer at the prospects of exploration and discovery among the azalea bushes and sweeping willow branches. The outdoors has always held peace for me, available if only I deign to open my front door to step out into it. Before motherhood, Saturdays were days of toil, pulling weeds, trimming bushes and tree branches, spraying weed and poison ivy killer by the gallon-fuls, and, of course, mowing the grass. Before motherhood, daily morning walks with the pup took us along the same route and the same people, making connections one smile and short wave at a time.
My Role in the Narrative
Nehemiah lived as part of the exiled Jewish people in the Persian Empire, specifically in the fortress city of Susa under the rule of King Artaxerxes. He received an update about his homeland from a small group of men from Judah, which left him distraught and grieving. Jerusalem’s protective walls and gates were destroyed, leaving the city vulnerable to attack and spreading rumors of their God’s ability to protect. As cupbearer, Nehemiah risked his life by appearing sad before the king and even further by requesting the king’s help in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, a project this king put a stop to earlier on in his reign.
Reading this book of the bible, I am amazed at the depth of this man’s wisdom reaching to each and every aspect of the daunting project. He had the foresight to request the king’s help in getting safely to his destination. He planned to encounter opposition and hardship. But what I find most intriguing about Nehemiah is the way he divided up the work of rebuilding and restoring Jerusalem. Each family was responsible for the section of the wall just opposite their home. Some sections were larger than others, but each person’s responsibility was clear to them.
Keeping a Smaller Focus
If the goal of following Christ is changing the world it feels counter-intuitive to focus only on serving the people living opposite to or adjacent to or inside your home. When I think of world-changing faith, I think in big and broad strokes, like seeing thousands of people come to faith at a Christian concert. What typically comes to mind are the people serving as missionaries in places where their service could get them imprisoned or killed. I think about how their way of life is ministry. It’s not something they start and stop when they want to participate. There is no 9-5 where the work of ministering to people who don’t know Jesus stays at the office.
We are no less missionaries simply because we serve little hands and feet a peanut butter sandwich and swipe gunk from a snotty nose. We are no less missionaries simply because we are called to mow an elderly neighbor’s grass, speak with the young couple four doors down, or get the mail when you know the ladies who know everything happening walk their dogs together.
What good is the gospel if our motive isn’t making connection with the people with whom we share it? Ministry and mission are more than the Lottie Moon offering and trips enticing young adults and high schoolers to build houses in Guatemala. If God calls you to participate in those things, I hope you will say yes, but if God calls you to stay, I hope you will treat the assignment with as much fervor and respect you would an international mission trip.
God Provides the Skills We Need
In God’s wisdom, Nehemiah gave each and every family a role in rebuilding the ancient walls of Jerusalem, excluding no one. He included the goldsmiths and perfumers, who might have had difficulty believing themselves equipped enough or up to the challenge of construction. If I were in their shoes, I might have voiced concern.
Are you sure I can really help with this? I have no skills to help with this project, and I don’t want to be a dead weight to your progress.
As a friend pointed out to me in bible study over this passage, God often calls us to do things outside our skillset and comfort zone. But He never leaves us incapable of accomplishing a task He set before us. He gave Moses clear speech when he courageously stepped into Pharoah’s court to ask for the Israelites’ freedom, where before Moses could barely utter a word aloud without stuttering and stopping. He gave the goldsmith and perfumer of Nehemiah’s workers the ability to carry out their task reconstructing the wall, despite their background in a different line of work.
He gives us the skills we need too. He gives us courage to say hello when we fear the uncertainty of new things and new people. He gives us strength and endurance when the waiting period is longer than we thought it would be. He gives us patience when we can see the end of our rope in the rearview mirror. We simply trust God to provide it.
In some ways it feels easier to tell people to go where they’re called when it’s somewhere else, somewhere new and foreign and exciting. When God calls me to stay where I am, to focus my attention on the people I see day in and day out, inside my house and walking their dogs along the street, it feels less like mission work. The heart of missions and ministry is serving the people God puts in our path the best we can and sharing Jesus’ love with them.
What does ministry look like if the only people I serve are my family? What does ministry look like if I’m called to simply live away from my hometown?
As I said before, there is much to be gained from serving on international mission trips. It challenges our worldview, exposes us to new cultures and ways of living, opens our eyes to the needs of others, and broadens our sense of the kingdom of God. While going somewhere else on mission does all these things, there is also much to be gained from saying yes to staying. It challenges my ideas about who God is, exposes my false beliefs and reliance on so many things not of God, opens my eyes to grace-filled living, and broadens my sense of the kingdom of God.
For the mother of young, spirited children and tiny babies who feels she will never again leave her home, God calls you to be a witness to your family and a testament to trusting Him to your neighbors when it seems your days hold no purpose.
For the woman stuck in the waiting who feels her prayers fall on deaf ears, God calls you to be a testament to His goodness when life unfolds differently than you planned.
For the woman holding tight to the thin strands tethering her to God during a season full of heartache, God calls you to find joy in your sorrow by drawing closer to Him than you ever have before.
May the Lord speak into your life this week, friends, and let our hearts and ears be open to His words.
