Servants of Excellence

So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” 
Nehemiah 6:3

As Nehemiah and his workers closed in on rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, his mockers—Sanballat and Geshem—sent a message to Nehemiah, asking for a conference. Why? Because they were afraid of his coming success. As Nehemiah points out, they wanted to stop the work—and harm him in the process.

Preparing to write this piece, a text message popped up on my phone from the executive director of one of our fellow pregnancy help centers. The ministry is under attack from a local abortion-advocacy group, which posted on its Instagram page, “Fake Clinics Love Lying.” In the post, they point directly to her pregnancy help center as a main culprit.

Welcome to the Sanballats and Geshems of today’s world.

Friends, if we’re effective at our calling, we’ve either experienced this first-hand or we are about to.

When we love our clients so much that they find hope and the courage to carry on through an incredibly challenging pregnancy, the opposition takes notice.

The opposition first tries mockery. We see this in Nehemiah when Tobiah the Ammonite saw the work starting and said, “Even what they are building—if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!” (Neh. 4:3)

Years ago, the pregnancy help community faced the same. Those who profit from ending pregnancies saw us as nothing but a nuisance. They had their big money from the federal trough, and hardly noticed us. They would glance our way and laugh—then go about their lucrative business.

Not today. Now, the abortion lobby is nervous, rightfully concerned we are winning the hearts of the regular people who were always uncomfortable with abortion but saw nowhere else to turn. Now that we are building our wall, a wall which those facing unexpected pregnancies can come inside for safety from those who would prey upon them for profit, we threaten the opposition’s existence.

Whether it is Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, magazines or online “investigations,” the opposition sends its message: “Come down off your wall. Engage with us and distract yourself from all you seek to accomplish.”

Yes, there are times we must engage and provide wise responses. Jesus did this when needed.

But far more often, our answer must be, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”

Our calling? Keep doing the great work. And when the attacks inevitably come our way, our modern response might be to look down from our perch on the wall and say, “I ain’t got time for that.”

by Kirk Walden, Advancement Specialist