Day 3: What Is Yours to Own

Nehemiah had a clean alibi. He was eight hundred miles away when the walls came down. He had not swung a single hammer against a single stone. By any reasonable accounting, this was not his fault.

And yet he refused to let his distance from the event become distance from responsibility. He said "we." He included himself. He did not use his innocence as an excuse to stay uninvolved.

This is one of the most countercultural moves in the entire book. Our instinct when something is broken is to locate blame outside ourselves as quickly as possible. And sometimes real harm really was done to us by someone else, that is true and it matters. But rebuilding stalls when we are only willing to see other people's fingerprints on the wreckage. Nehemiah found freedom here, and it became the foundation for everything he built.

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16 (NIV)

There is freedom in naming what is ours honestly before God and before others, the same freedom Nehemiah found in this prayer.

Is there a broken relationship, situation, or pattern in your life where you have been focused almost entirely on what someone else did? What might be yours to own in it, even a small part?

Radiant Application

Healthy churches are not churches with no faults, they are churches willing to own their part quickly and humbly. Is there a small way you could take ownership this week, in a conversation, a team, or a relationship at Radiant, rather than waiting for someone else to go first?

Practical Application

Write a one-paragraph honest confession, not about anyone else, just about yourself and your part. You do not have to share it with anyone. This is between you and God. But write it as specifically as Nehemiah prayed it.