Ever Had A Random News Report Answer An Unrelated Question? Well, This One Did.

Uzbekistan's flag and Ukraine's flag

A radio news segment caught my attention last week. The story featured a man who shared his struggle. This was a total ah-hah, I get it, moment for me.

The man lived in Uzbekistan ( possibly Ukraine. To be honest, I heard this report while driving and could not take notes for you. I went back to the station's archive, even sent an email to the station to confirm which country but did not find or receive the answer. The point is, while the two countries are individual and important, the story could have easily happened in both.)

The man said he struggled because for seventy years communism ruled his country. Now that his fellow countrymen were able to return to their own culture and restore what was a way of life years ago, they simply didn't know how...or what used to be. Recipes. Celebrations. Clothing styles. Traditions. Normalcy. You name it. All of this had been taken away from them for seventy years.

That single comment was more powerful than I believe the man imagined.

I have been doing a series of stories about the Jews returning from Babylon to Jerusalem. To say the Jews messed up more than once after returning to their homeland would be to sorely understate. Babylonian soldiers forced waves of Jewish citizens to walk miles to a foreign country and pressed them into servitude.

For seventy years Jews served under various ruling kings of the empire. Then, the king sent a group back to rebuild the city. This first group rebuilt their houses, planted their crops, and that's about it.

Some time later, a Babylonian king sent Ezra and another group back. The king told Ezra to teach those living in Jerusalem and Judah the law of Moses. For a time the people listened. Repair began on the temple. Then everything fizzled again.

God sent Nehemiah's brother to him with a report. Nehemiah, the Babylonian king's cupbearer, told the king what his brother said. Jerusalem and Judah were a mess. Many repairs simply were not getting done. The king sent Nehemiah with another group of Jews to Jerusalem to rebuilt the city walls.

The Jews had lived under Babylonian rule for seventy years.

I thought, at last, they're free! They should have been excited to go back to their own homeland where they had the freedom to live their culture? Why didn't they rebuild, renew, restore, restart?

This man's report enlightened me with an answer from today's world. An answer I could understand.

The Jews almost refusal to return to the ways God had taught their fathers wasn't because they didn't want to or didn't have the energy or money. It was because they no longer knew how.

Many of those returning to Jerusalem had never lived in their homeland or were only small children when they left. They didn't know. Perhaps some couldn't speak the language, knowing only what the Babylonians spoke.

And that is why God sent Ezra with the law of Moses and Nehemiah with the skills to rebuild the walls...to push start the restoration. That is why the Jews just didn't know how to live their culture right away.

Now I get it.

Suzanne Woods Fisher - Overcoming the Fear of Failure

We've all had something fail. Maybe a school assignment, baking a cake, changing a car tire. Well that was my shortlist confession. There really is a mile long list that you don't want to hear. Talk about a quick drive to the blues. Even one negative comment in a barrel full of praises can take us down. Sigh. Why oh why do we remember the one negative one and forget the positives. You are not alone. We all do this. But there is a way of escape. Today, Suzanne Woods Fisher is going to share her story. The Fear of Failure “For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you. Do not fear; I will help you” (Isaiah 41:13, niv). Years ago, before I received my first book contract, an editor returned a manuscript to me with the comment that the writing wasn’t up to her publishing house’s “caliber.” Ouch! That was a tough remark to swal...

A Memory Device For You

Photo Courtesy Recently I added a memory game to my week's activities. It all started when I listened to one of those fabulous sermons in church and actually took notes. Later in the week, I recalled liking the sermon and searched for the notes, but lamented when I couldn't find the piece of paper. I quizzed myself: What was the general topic? I racked my brain…good grief this was Thursday and a thousand other things had happened when I asked the question. After a cup of tea, visualizing where I sat in the sanctuary, and using every other means possible to remember the general topic I finally answered the question. The process to recall the rest of the good things said was an epic fail. Although I have since started using a notebook I have created a memory game. On Monday, at any point during the day, I try to say the following without the use of my notes: General topic of the sermon Main book of the Bible used Application p...

Laughter and Singing at the Homeless Shelter

It was a night to remember. A night to tell friends about. So I am... Fifty men, women, and teens rode in busses on icy expressways into the inner city. They poured out of the bus at a homeless shelter unsure where to go, what to do, or what to say. One led the pack through the main doors, pass security checkpoints, and on through winding hallways to a large room. At night, this room is filled, wall to wall, with cots, blankets, and at this time of year, cold homeless men, women, and children. On this evening before the night, hundreds of chairs formed straight rows and faced a platform. The fifty set up sound and instrument equipment. Singers cozied in the limited platform space. Instrumentalists tuned their instruments. A few residents poked their heads in the door. Intrigued, they came in and watched the first measures of several songs start, stop, start again. Microphone levels adjusted. The singers laughed. Chattered. The group stepped off to the side and...

The Storyteller | Mary Vee

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