Get your hands dirty.

Once you connect your heart to the mission, it becomes necessary to do something about it. The work is hard. And sometimes it’s dirty—the kind of dirty that gets up underneath your fingernails and leaves your fingers blistered and cracked. The front line isn’t an easy world to engage in, and that’s why so few decide to engage in it. But that’s where the work is done. That’s where broken city gates lay waiting to be rebuilt. Sometimes those gates are physical like in the story. But most often those gates are emotional, spiritual, and mental. And those can be even harder to rebuild. But broken people and communities are worth it even if it’ll cost us to lean into them. 

Here’s the truth of the matter: If enough of us decide to get close enough to the front line, then we will have more impact. It’s strength in numbers. And if our numbers are strong, then we can do something about the issues that seem impossible. Everybody was expected to participate in the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s gates. And there were a lot of people working who weren’t qualified or specialized.

There were priests building alongside perfume-makers, goldsmiths, and district leaders. There were even fathers laboring with their daughters. There were a lot of people doing something they were not experts at doing. They didn’t pray about whether or not they should do it. They prayed while they were doing it. They didn’t wait until they knew how to do it. They learned as they went. Why? Because the people were in danger. Evil was outside the gate. Children were at risk. God’s reputation with an entire generation was on the line. There was too much at stake.

Everybody necessary to rebuild the town was already in the town. And that principle is true for us. Our churches, communities, and families are full of the people necessary to help fix them. Disappointment strips us of our abilities to dream and reach for better things, and maybe you’ve known this personally. Maybe you’ve never considered that you are part of the solution to rebuild and restore what is broken in the lives of other people or even in your community. But you are called to this work by virtue of being God’s child. We know the work feels impossible, but it’s isn’t. It’s good work. It’s just going to take all of us. This is our proving ground. This is where the love that we’ve been shown by God is used to change a broken world. And that world desperately needs to experience that love—from God and also from us.