"ANY OLD STICK WILL DO"

“ANY OLD STICK WILL DO”

Nehemiah 2:4 “And the king said, “What is it you want?”

In the movies we hold our breath for “the moment of truth.” At the tire store they say it’s “where the rubber meets the road,” and on Wall Street they call it “the bottom line.” When I was a kid it was play ground talk, “it’s time to put em’ up or shut up!”

Been faced with the bottom line lately? April fifteenth ring a bell? Nehemiah knew what it was to have his own last minute meeting with the accountant, only to see the big red number at the bottom of the page. He had been waiting four months for this moment and now King Artexerxes wanted to know what was bothering him.

What would he say? He gulped, shot up a quick prayer and let 13 weeks of pent-up images come spilling out from the depths of his soul.

It was “time to make a change.” For this ancient builder he would be the one who would become ”the change agent.” It was ‘put up or shut up.” The pain of his ancestors and the embarrassment of his homeland (a city with no walls; therefore, no protection) had gripped his inner being and he wanted to do something about it. And do he did!!!!!!

The lift-gate on my 1992 Plymouth Voyager is broken. Nothing serious, just a two-dollar screw that snapped and broke away from the cylinder that holds the gate open. The other day in the grocery store parking lot, (as I was loading a weeks worth of grub into the old blue wagon), I looked at that well-worn cracked broom-handle-turned-cylinder that stood between me and a good conk on the head.

I said to myself, “One of these days that old stick is going to slip and knock you silly.” Then I had an even worse thought. “What if it slipped on my wife or one of my daughters and knocked them senseless?” “But the stick is working,” I rationalized. Then I had a mental picture: “Me in a parking lot, with half of my body stuck out of the back end of the family truckster, yelling for someone to come lift this two-hundred-pound door off my body.” Embarrassment made an appointment in my brain, and I am making an appointment with Marvin (he fixes my cars)! It is time to replace the stick with something strong.

Artexerxes asked Nehemiah: “What’s the problem, and what do want me to do for you?”

Nehemiah responded: “My homeland lays in ruin. It has no walls, and my people are in shame. SEND me home, SECURE me with your blessing, and SUPPLY me with all that I need to finish the job.”

For years “any old stick would do” for his hackneyed homeland. For many of us right now “any old stick is doing!” Anything come to mind? I am sure you are envisioning matters far more weighty than a two hundred pound lift-gate. Family? Finances? Physical problems? Career?

Jesus, on many occasions, said to people of the “any old stick will do” mentality, “What do you want me to do for you?” “ It’s my sight,” one man said. Another with leprosy asked, “Would you make me clean?” And still another queried, “It’s my sick child. Would you come and make him better?”

Nehemiah faced the bottom line, knee deep in red ink. King Artexerxes replaced his cracked stick with something strong.

Jesus is a specialist at replacing cracked broom handles holding up heavy doors. He is already asking, “What do you want me to do for you?” Why not trade in your stick for something strong?