Reactions

Today I was reading in Nehemiah, (which may be a great name for a kid) and wondered to myself if maybe I react differently than this leader did.  I'm concentrating on the first four verses of the first chapter and mainly vs. 3-4.
    Here is a man that is chilling in the capital and meets up with his brother, Hanani, and begins asking about the old city. The news he gets seems quite disconcerting.
    "The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame.  The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire." 
     That’s not the answer you would expect today when you ask about a former church. Most the time we simply say " they are alright".  I can't imagine what it would have been like if I asked my brother how life back in MA is and he said well those who remain are in trouble and there is basically no safety up there for those who life there.  My instincts would tell me that I need to get the remaining members of my family down here into the safety of Amish Paradise.  All that being said that wasn't the part of the passage that struck me the hardest. Look at vs. 4 for Nehemiah's reaction:
  
      "As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven."

     Really?!?! My first instincts would be action based.  Maybe I am a bit desensitized by today’s culture and I do not mourn as I should and if you ask my wife i do not even come anywhere close to weeping as much as one should.  My thoughts automatically become results based, I begin to look for a solution such as get the remaining people together and start building right away. Take out a loan, go to Lowes', fix the wall and get on with life.  I don't take much time to reflect on the situation before I begin to look to the future and what I think is best.
     Not Nehemiah though. He sat down, (which is action but doesn't seem the most productive avenue) wept and mourned for DAYS. I can't even imagine just weeping for one day. I figure life comes and goes, things of this world come and go, and I have an unfortunate ability to deny emotional attachment to a majority of things in life.  But here is a man that was so gripped by the pain of the words his brother spoke that for multiple days he mourned and wept. I would have to say that he is much more of a man that I at this point. 
     I wonder if there is any point in this current age where the actions that are going on around us would just tug at our hearts so much that it would send us into a time like Nehemiah felt then.  We have wars all over, violence everywhere, education systems lost, corrupt government, failing economy, and just all around pitiful place to live.  Somehow that doesn't spring forth any emotion from many of us.  It doesn't cause us to want to sit down and weep for days.
      Many of us do the last part of the sentence and pray. Prayer seems pretty easy for many of us.  What he does while he is praying on the other hand seems hard as well.  Fasting.  Fasting seems to be a practice that has slipped from the modern church.  Mainly I believe because it requires that we deny ourselves something for a period of time.  In the Bible this was done with food (which for me sounds like cruel and unusual punishment) but I believe it could be done with many things today.  We could deprive ourselves of the internet, television, video games, cell phones, pretty much anything that could hinder us from fully concentrating our minds on the issue at hand and discussing that issue with the all mighty Father.  I for one don't believe I have ever fasted on purpose. Sure I do days without the things listed above but not because I am trying to focus my mind on the issues of today’s world and ways God would want them fixed, but because I just don't have time for them in my busy schedule.
       I did not mean to demean the importance of prayer in this either.  It helps us understand that it isn't some humanitarian effort we are on, or some political agenda we are trying to fulfill, but rather gives us communication with the One who created the world and knows how He wants it to be.  And sadly how we are living right now is far from how He wants it to be.  Right now though we are comfortable sitting in our pews, singing chorus', and letting the world run itself.  When will we take back the world and run it with peace and love the way God designed it to be? After we realize the depravity, it hits our hearts hard enough to make us weep for days, and we honestly and earnestly seek the answers on how to do it properly. 
    Nehemiah was a wise man. Lets all learn something from him.