Rubble

The book of Nehemiah tells the story of the people of Israel who returned to Jerusalem after years of exile in Babylon and began to rebuild to wall around the city. It was hard work, with many obstacles. Their enemies taunted, then threatened them. They had to be ready to fight, holding weapons as they worked. They prevailed and continued to build. 

Then, Nehemiah 4:10 says "The strength of the laborer fails, since there is so much rubble. We will never be able to rebuild the wall."

That verse amazes me. These laborers had faced obstacles that were much bigger than rubble and stayed strong. But, the rubble got to them, caused them to be so discouraged they were ready to give up. 

Rebuilding is harder than starting fresh with a new building. 

We are in the process of a HUGE remodel. Everywhere I turn, there is rubble! (you can see more at http://nottoooldforanewadventure.blogspot.com/)

Rubble is hard to deal with when there is a lot of it. 

One thing about it, you have to clean out the old rubble before you can rebuild. 

We have been working on cleaning up our yard. The first thing we did was trim the overgrown shrubs around the house and cut down some dead trees, which produced rubble we had to cart away. 

We tore down an old fence. Before we could take that rubble away, we had to go through it to salvage the wood we could reuse (some of it became our new kitchen ceiling).

Some of the dead trees and branches will be taken to the country to be burned. We have to go through the piles first to remove any boards with nails, or any wires.

Some of the rubble has valuable products, like copper tubing we found. 

The point is that we need to go through the rubble before we just get rid of it.

I have thought about that a lot since I read the verse in Nehemiah. We all have some rubble in our life; old hurts, wounds, disappointments, bad relationships. We need to deal with the rubble. It is important to go through it carefully, so that we don't throw away the treasures that are mixed in with the rubble. 

Sometimes, people through away a relationship, like a marriage because it is easier than painstakingly dealing with the hurts and issues. Or we throw away a job instead of pulling our the rubble. I have just been thinking about the rubble I may still have in my heart. I don't want to spend any more time stepping over rubble that I don't want to take time to deal with.