The Canvas of Tomorrow Sample

Nehemiah had to stand against the powerfully ingrained negative self-concept of the people of Jerusalem: their belief that they deserved their desperate condition, and there was nothing they could do to change it. After all, their parents and grandparents had rebelled against God, worshiped idols, and trusted in foreign countries for protection instead of trusting in the Lord. They had been crushed by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians. Now the Persians were the supreme power, and they were just as ruthless as the rest. For decades, God’s people had been beaten down, starved, enslaved, and seemingly abandoned by God . . . but wasn’t this exactly what they deserved? That was their conclusion.

Nehemiah was under no illusions that the people he would enlist in the construction project were skilled and eager. When he shared his vision of a new tomorrow, Nehemiah said, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and her gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach” (Nehemiah 2:17). They had lived in the ruins of the city so long that their lives resembled some of the apocalyptic movies about the end of time. Imagine trying to scratch out a living among the broken rocks and burned gates. Imagine your children crying from hunger, and imagine your spouse blaming you for not doing more. 

The mindset of the people in Jerusalem was “learned helplessness,” which, according to Psychology Today, “occurs when an individual continuously faces a negative, uncontrollable situation and stops trying to change their circumstances, even when they can do so.”12Over time, their vision of the future becomes myopic, their hopes are nonexistent, and their energy level is negligible. We see it in the lives of addicts who have given up on ever getting clean and sober. We see it in the lives of spouses who have lived in despair so long that they have no hope of real change in their marriages. We see it in the lives of communities where generations of poverty have created an ingrained, pervasive discouragement. People who believe this about themselves have concluded they haven’t just failed; they believe they’re branded as failures. They’ve concluded that everything is out of their control, and whatever they try won’t work anyway, so what’s the use?

All leaders, especially pastors, have to address the unseen, often unidentified, but very real powers of systems and mindsets that keep our people locked into either hopelessness or unrealistic (and ungodly) demands for political power over others. We can throw up our hands and complain that there’s nothing we can do about it, or we can do the hard work of identifying the dark powers and taking action to remedy injustice wherever we find it. Sometimes we’ll need to go to city hall to protest and ask for changes, and sometimes, our efforts will lead us to someone who has been caught up in those dark powers, so we can share the love of Jesus and see God transform a life.