Willing workers, part II

We talked last time about how these willing workers in Nehemiah were willing to cooperate; and that they discovered that each of their efforts complemented the others'.
Today we will look at being willing to work outside our areas of strength. Some folks might call it "pushing the edge of the envelope" or "working outside our comfort zone."

Let's check out the first verse of chapter three:

Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and set its doors in place, building as far as the Tower of the Hundred, which they dedicated, and as far as the Tower of Hananel. (v 1)

I'm betting that the building skills to rebuild the Sheep Gate and build the walls as far as the Tower of the Hundred (and the Tower of Hananel) were not skills that the high priest and the other priests learned as part of their rabbinical training! 
Quotations from Moses. Absolutely.
Lessons from Abraham. Yup, and much more.
Building gates? Not so much.
But they rolled up the sleeves of their robes, figuratively speaking, and perhaps literally, and got to work!
Maybe they had to get some pointers on the building part. Maybe a short tutorial one evening on how to construct a gate. Maybe getting someone with experience to be with them on the first day or so.
Whatever it took, these folks were determined, and they were successful!
Verses nine and twelve tell us that there were paper-pushers who learned to build! What I mean is that these verses tell us that city officials joined in the work.

Next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur, the official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs. (v 9)

They may have been more used to doing "official" duties in the city, but here they are channeling their inner construction worker! They didn't look down their noses, either, or view all of this manual labor as below their dignity.
In verse eight, we see that goldsmiths and perfume makers alike joined in this rugged work.

Next to him Uzziel the son of Harhaiah of the goldsmiths made repairs. And next to him Hananiah, one of the perfumers, made repairs, and they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. (v 8)

These were not people who were accustomed to this - I bet that they had aching muscles at night where they never had ached before!
In verse twelve, we see another surprise:

Next to him Shallum the son of Hallohesh, the official of half the district of Jerusalem, made repairs, he and his daughters. (v 12)

The way that is written, I believe those ladies were doing more than handing out cups of lemonade and chicken salad sandwiches!
The point of all this is that we need to be open to work on things that may be outside of our comfort zone. We may think, "Well, that's not my spiritual gift" when a task needs willing hands. But there are many jobs where we all need to pitch in, whether it's our gift or not. Or whether we've EVER done that before, or not. Or whether we can work alongside someone we are comfortable with, or not.
In a nutshell, EVERYONE got involved in Nehemiah 3.
And we need to be willing to do the same.
The New Testament is clear: if we are believers, we are in the ministry, in the service of Christ, and working to accomplish His purpose. A familiar passage in Matthew tells us that we will give an account of our ministry to the Master someday (Matthew 25:14-30).
Do we feel we are a "one talent" Christian? No task is unimportant. And our Father expects each one of us to use what He has entrusted to us.