No Expert Builders Listed (Nehemiah 3:8,32)

Have you ever felt under-qualified for a task? Like maybe somebody has got to do something, but you can’t do it because the task is bigger than you or requires more knowledge or training than you have? I can’t imagine what it would have been like had the disciples known up front how Jesus would transform their lives and send them to the utter most parts of the earth with His gospel. Each one would have probably rejected the idea out of hand. No way they could do that, but they could and they would. A little time with Jesus shapes us not into the person we think we are, but into the person he has always intended us to be. As the old saying goes, “He doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.”

Rebuilding the wall in Nehemiah’s day was no exception. What I love most about Nehemiah chapter three is that while we hear about all the folks who put their hand to rebuilding the wall we don’t hear about any that are qualified. We don’t read word’s like carpenter, stone mason, architect, expert builder, or even handy man. Instead we read things like, priest, perfumer, goldsmiths, and merchants. These are the qualified builders who rebuilt the wall! No expert builders are present! God uses all sorts of people!

You may feel like you are in over your head or are playing in a bigger league than you should. You may think, “I’m just a teenager” or “I just don’t have the gifting. What can I do anyway?” The beauty of taking on a God sized task like reaching your neighborhood, school, or city is that God does all the heavy lifting. He puts us in proximity to others whose hearts are stirred and creates movement. In the end it is His call that qualifies you and no matter how good your resume gets, the call will be the only credentials you ever really needed.