Nehemiah prays real quick…

In chapter two of Nehemiah, 3-4 months since he first began praying, we get to see him at the job. The text doesn’t seem to indicate that this was the first time Nehemiah was in the presence of the King since his time of morning and fasting, but it does indicate that it was his first time being sad; maybe the fact that God was not answering his prayer in the way that he desired was weighing heavily, the reality of long-term, “hard-winter” prayer. The kind that accepts hard life as reality, like when the Ingalls family in Little House on the Prairie was getting prepared for winter; they knew that it would be a long time before hope, in the form of Spring, returned.

So, Nehemiah does what every adult would do, he gets up, he gets dressed, and he goes to work. What else is there, but to continue life, or some semblance of it? Then, as if he jumped into the icy cold water, he realizes that the King has noticed his sadness; and his journal records “Ï was very much afraid.” When I imagine all of the scenes in the Old Testament of servants and slaves in the court of the King, I imagine those where people walk quietly, everything is perfect, please don’t upset the King, please don’t anger the King, please don’t offend the king; these types of sentiments seem to rule the day, and Nehemiah, by his very demeanor invites the Kings’ personal inquiry. Confronted, Nehemiah boldly states the source of his sadness, knowing that his honest response will be the only true explanation. Then the King responds to Nehemiah “What would you request?”

I can only imagine the surprise in Nehemiah’s heart at this question, “did he just ask me this? Someone make sure I heard this correctly, did the King just ask me what he could do?” And what did Nehemiah do in the brief moments between the King’s question and his timely response? Nehemiah prayed real quick…..

Now, I couldn’t just let this go. This is my soapbox, the one that I stand on each year for the past ten or more, decrying the act of praying “real quick.” Prayer isn’t something we grab, like the sucker at the barber shop as we are rushing out the door. Prayer is connection with God, it’s heartfelt journeying, it’s time and thought, and time and quiet, and time and listening, and time and crying, and more time. It’s the journey process, not the quick, give-me-what-I-want candy jar. Yet here he is praying in that brief moment between the question and the answer; it can only be a second, maybe two.

But that’s what I love about Nehemiah and the way he prayed. Nehemiah’s journal stated that this is the first time that he was sad in the King’s presence; it also states that the reason for his sadness was for the city of Jerusalem. As all of this is true, I believe that in Nehemiah’s life, we catch a part of what it means to pray without ceasing. It almost seems that Nehemiah’s very demeanor and life takes on this prayer, this mourning for the Jews, for Jerusalem, for a people who are enduring separation from God. He takes the burden on as his own. This isn’t just sadness; this is life demeanor in conversation with God, one that begins to influence his very actions; his relationship with the Father influences his “real” life. Or, maybe his “real” life is finally influencing his existence. Maybe his community with God is finally breaking into his-so-called-life.

Sure, Nehemiah prays for maybe a second, under his breath as he inhales before exhaling the radical proposal that he take off from work for a journey to rebuild a slave town and his request for the king to fund it. Yet, this wasn’t the beginning of the God-conversation, it is the natural continuation of a conversational life with God, one that is interacting, that is pleading and listening, watching and waiting, and when the answer comes, recognizes that it is God speaking in events, to use the impossible, the unbelievable, to move in His world, the “real” world, the world of God’s Kingdom.