Showing posts with label Nehemiah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nehemiah. Show all posts

Sunday, October 23, 2011

The Walls Must Fall


Transparency. 

It is the first ingredient for confession.  You will never win at life if you play with a poker face.  

Linus, the life coach, taught me that much.  

Come to the wall.  

Whatever wall blocks you from moving forward.  


The wall has pent up all my dreams.  

I hear them, there, bantering on the other side.  

So I come to the wall.  I shout to the wall.  I say to the wall, "Hey, I'm here. I'm not hiding anymore.  Hey, I'm here: vulnerable, powerless, angry.  Hey, did you hear me?  I'm calling you out, wall.  I'm not leaving.  I'm not running. I hate this wall.  I want it down."  

I am marking my territory.  My shouts provide echo-location for the source of my angst.  Everyone will know: that I have a wall, that I hate this wall, that I cannot break it down.  

You can't embarrass a wall down.  

You can't harass a wall to crumbling.  

I can be honest.  
       I can be transparent.  
                I can find the strength that is hidden in weakness. 

My confession, made public, becomes our confession.  

Nehemiah, the Hebrew governor-prophet, profoundly proclaimed to the persecuted people rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem:




One voice that calls many.  

I am one voice.  
I am many voices.  

Accountability is fraternity.  

In numbers...numbers that rally to my cry...numbers that march beside a wall...numbers that shout with shared frustration at a thing that will not move...that keeps me...keeps us...from the grand things waiting on the other side...

When masses march 
                        and shout 
                                  walls fall.  

Such movements begin
                    and only begin
with a face 
       easily read 
by others 
       standing by
the same wall.