Saying It And Doing It - A possible super-theme of Nehemiah.

Through most of high school, I worked at a Marathon gas station down the road from my home. The law in Michigan at the time would only allow me to work 18 hours a week. Because of my schedule with school and church, I took most of the Saturday morning opening shifts.

Okay, so, it's high school. Getting up at 5:30 on a Saturday morning took a little effort, so I had to come up with ways to motivate myself. One routine involved playing a James Brown's Greatest Hits cassette I picked up at a truck stop. I'd sing every one of the songs while sweeping the floor, brewing the coffee, and filling the soda fountain ice dispenser. One morning, while singing For Goodness Sakes, Just Look At Those Cakes into the broom handle, I turned around to see an ancient old woman standing at the door. Admittedly, I gasped a little out of fright. This old lady wanted her very special brand of cigarettes at 6 in the morning and watched my Mr. Good Foot as she waited for me to unlock the door. From that day on, we had an understanding: if she didn't tell anyone about my stiff, suburban "dancing", I'd open the shop early and sell her cigarettes whenever she came to the door.

Well, all that to say, I listened to that cassette a lot. One of the songs had a chorus I especially liked (although I only today learned it was a cover song), Sayin' It An' Doin' It. I like that mentality. Do what you say. Talk the talk and walk the walk. Integrity. But it's a hard thing to decide sometimes, are we always willing to live by what we say we believe?

I think Nehemiah had this conviction. He seems to have demonstrated not only biblical knowledge, but also the courage to follow through on what he knew was right. People often talk about the book of Nehemiah in terms of leadership and serving. I wonder if all that can come under an over-arching theme of following through on what the Bible commands.

What about you, what do you think? Do you sometimes have trouble following through on doing things biblically even when you know the truth? Do you make excuses or say that it was only for a certain time and a certain place? How thin do you slice that slice?