God's Name, Our Delight

O Lord, let you ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name . . . I was cupbearer to the King (Nehemiah 1:11a).

Atlantans love their decals. Around here, decals are one of the ways that people tell you who they are; little bits and pieces of their identity are stuck to the back window of the SUV. If you spend any time in a car-pool line you are likely to learn where people vacation, what other schools they’ve attended or attend, how many years they gave money to that school, what sports their kids play and in what program. It’s a mini-resume on adhesive. We have a school decal on both of our vehicles, so I write this as confession, not criticism.

The decals make me wonder about how we understand our identity. What is it about our life that most truly captures who we are? What are we most eager for someone else to know about us? What would help a person truly “get” us? If it’s not the decals on our car, then often it’s the job we wake up to every morning, or the neighborhood we live in, or the friends we run with, or the clothes we wear, or the degrees we’ve earned.

The real action of Nehemiah begins in chapter two with his journey back to Jerusalem and his midnight inspection of the city’s walls. But everything that Nehemiah does is grounded in who Nehemiah is; his own deep sense of identity defines his commitments, the task to which he gives himself. To understand who Nehemiah is, we need to hang out a little longer in chapter one.

There is something distinctive about how Nehemiah understands himself, his life, his identity. He only makes one reference to his job. “I was cupbearer to the King.” Plenty of folks would have killed for that job – prestige, access to the King, authority over a large staff. It was a decent job, to be sure. But Nehemiah only mentions it once – almost a throw-away comment. When it comes to his identity, Nehemiah’s word of choice is “servant.” He is a servant of God. The English word “servant” (NIV) shows up seven times in Nehemiah’s prayer. At the end of the prayer he gives the word a definition: servants are those who “delight in revering [God’s] name.”

What would change about this day and your plans for the weekend if above all else you saw yourself as God’s servant? That means that today in the office, tomorrow at the game, next week on the business trip – whatever and wherever you are - you are God’s servant. This is who you are, and it shapes what you do and how you do it.

When Nehemiah rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls it his aim was not merely well constructed and fully repaired walls around the city. Nehemiah’s aim was to honor God and God’s name. Because of that – because he defined himself as a servant of God, he went to work restoring order to the city. More than anything, God calls you to serve him. The great news is that you don’t need a special assignment to do that. You can start today, right where you are.

Prayer:
There are days, O Lord, when I forget who I am. I define myself in ways and with words that come from the world around me. These leave me unsatisfied, restless. Remind me today of who you created me to be and teach me to be your servant in all that I do. Amen.