20 Seconds Of Insane Courage

Last night my awesome mother-in-law Betty took me, Beth(my wife), and my brother-in-law Tim out to dinner at Chin Chin's in Mattawan, MI. If you haven't been to Chin Chin's, go tonight. Incredible Asian cuisine. 

White fish on blackened coconut rice.

Awesome looking steak covered in an awesome looking steak sauce.

And...

The vegetarian mixed vegetables! 

After dinner we went and saw, We Bought a Zoo, starring Matt Damon. Great family movie with a few cheesy lines mixed in. In the movie Matt Damon's character courageously and adventurously buys a nearly deserted zoo and several times throughout the movie talks about how sometimes in life all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. This reminded me of the story of Nehemiah.

Beth and I have been reading the book of Nehemiah together over the past week or so and we have been fascinated by this story. 


Nehemiah is a Jew who has been taken captive by Persian king, Artaxerxes I. Nehemiah must have found some favor with the king because he appointed as his cupbearer. 


While Nehemiah was serving as cupbearer, some of the Jews had been released from their captivity in Babylonia and allowed to return to Jerusalem. Nehemiah hears of this news and  that they have rebuilt the temple, but he also hears that the walls of Jerusalem are in ruins causing Jerusalem to be virtually defenseless against any neighboring enemy. If you've read even five chapters of any Old Testament book, you probably know that the Israelites are attacked quite frequently and having walls around their city would greatly help(although if they would remain faithful to God, He was willing to fight most of their battles for them, but that's a struggle for most of us as well).


Nehemiah is overwhelmed with sadness when he hears this news. So much so that the king notices Nehemiah's mood swing(the king may have thought it was 'that time of the month'). The king asks Nehemiah whats wrong. Ok, hold up, why does the king care about this random cupbearer guy? I mean come on, this isn't a time in history nor a society where everyone had equal rights, the king held Nehemiah's physical life in his hands. Yet, something about Nehemiah's character set him apart. It appears to me that God honors Nehemiah for his faithfulness and loyalty to the king in the midst of captivity. 


Nehemiah proceeds to tell the king what's troubling him (the lack of walls) and what he believed needed to be done. The king then grants Nehemiah permission to go and rebuild the walls! If that isn't crazy enough for you, Nehemiah then proceeds to boldly and courageously ask the king for a ton of the resources he would need. 20 seconds of insane courage. Well, it pays off. The king grants ALL of Nehemiah's requests! When we purposely line our goals up with the goals of God's kingdom, God provides the resources we need to accomplish those goals. 


So Nehemiah heads back to Jerusalem in 444 B.C. to rebuild the walls...then the story starts to really get good. 


Next Blog Post: Prepared Out of Their Nakedness.


What's your 20 seconds of insane courage story?