A Tandem Bike

 

I heard about two brothers who got a tandem bike for Christmas. Those bikes built for two can be a lot of fun, but they require teamwork. These two brothers decided to attempt going up an especially steep hill. The older brother was in the front of the bike, peddling hard, and giving it everything he had to reach the top. When they finally did, he wiped his brow and said, “Man, that was a steep hill.” 

 

His younger brother agreed, saying, “Yeah, and if I hadn’t been putting the brakes on the whole time we might have rolled back down.” 

 

Have you ever felt like you were doing all the work? Even worse, have you ever felt like people were working against you when you were doing all the work? I know Nehemiah felt like that. Nehemiah was the cupbearer for the Persian king Artaxerxes, but when his brother gave him a sad update about the state of affairs in Jerusalem, he asked leave of his king and set out to the land of his fathers. Seventy years earlier the city had been destroyed by the Babylonians, and the temple and city walls were still in ruins. God used Ezra to rally the people to rebuild the temple, and then He used Nehemiah to get them to rebuild the walls around the city. 

 

 While the work was being done a few antagonists began to work against Nehemiah. Like a little brother putting the brakes on the bicycle, these guys worked to undermine the work around the city. Sanballat and Tobiah openly mocked Nehemiah, sent open letters to embarrass him, lied about him, and plotted to physically attack him. They continually tried to lure him away from the work because they wanted to stop construction by any way possible. Nehemiah 4:6 simply says, “And we built the wall.” No fanfare, just dedicated work. 

 

In Chuck Swindoll’s classic book Hand Me Another Brick, he wrote that throughout all of the antagonizing Nehemiah’s response was always, “Keep mixing the mortar, and hand me another brick.” That must be our attitude whenever Satan tries to get us off course. We have to be able to drown out the noise and keep doing the work. Just keep building the wall. Keep mixing the mortar. Keep grabbing the next brick. 

 

There will always be a Sanballat and a Tobiah that try to thwart the plan when we are working for the Lord. They will try to keep you from teaching, preaching, and sharing your faith. Whenever they put the brakes on your bike, just say, “Keep mixing the mortar, and hand me another brick.”