Ambidextrous

Ambidextrous

In all my years of teaching, in numerous rotations and schedules, I’d never once missed an assignment. But streaks are made to be broken. I arrived in my adult Bible study classroom one Sunday, five minutes late but eager to hear one of my gifted coteachers share a lesson from Nehemiah. Imagine my surprise when I entered the room and saw neither of my two coteachers—but instead a slightly bewildered room of learners staring at an empty podium.

Gulp.

Someone goofed. And that someone was me. We’d altered the schedule two weeks before, and apparently I misunderstood the new plan. So I confessed my already-apparent confusion and my soon-to-be-apparent unpreparedness, borrowed a pair of reading glasses to see the hopelessly tiny print of the pocket Bible I carry in my purse, and invited the class to pray, asking God to guide us as we opened his Word.

Together we read the text of Nehemiah 4, lingering over each section to consider its content. We read how the builders of the wall around Jerusalem faced ugly mocking and shame. How they became discouraged by threats and humiliation, and how their servant-leader Nehemiah responded. And we read how Nehemiah instructed the builders to work: with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other.

He asked for ambidextrous workers. Men who could mend walls and also duel—choosing one tool over another in an instant, but ever ready with both. Some of his builders were no doubt experts with the trowel. Others excelled with the sword. But each carried both and at the sound of the trumpet, would lay down one and run toward the noise of battle with the other.

I favor the hand that builds over the hand that duels, but Satan is on the prowl, so I must be vigilant. I want him to go away and leave me to my tasks, but he has not. Thankfully, God is more than able to help us in the battle. Our God will fight for us when we are weak, unprepared, or fearful. He is ready, even when we are not.

Those who were rebuilding the wall and those who carried burdens took their load with one hand doing the work and the other holding a weapon.

Nehemiah 4:17, NASB