Standing On The Wall

By: Phil Williams

My wife recently said something so noteworthy about the times we live in. “He gave us freedom so we could spread freedom,” she said. “He” meaning God, gave us freedom so that we could spread freedom. I agree with that.

Once we’ve been entrusted with something valuable, our role thereafter is to be a good steward. We could take freedom for granted and be no more than a miser, hiding in a dark room and talking to our precious like Gollum in his dark cave. Or we can be a steward, an investor, a person who believes that to whom much is given much is expected.

Freedom is one of the greatest gifts ever given and something that many nations and peoples only dream about. Freedom to speak, to move about, to gather, to worship, to vote, to be defended. Actual freedom is more than just a notion, it is a right, a measure of life.

Next to the life-changing freedom I have in Jesus Christ, there is no greater freedom than those of an American citizen. But the freedoms that you and I have are under attack in a major way. There are those who believe their role is not to serve the greater good, but to show the masses why their version of good is greater.

But when you always err on the side of freedom, and personal liberty, it’s hard to go wrong. There is no substitute for the freedoms we know as Americans. We don’t want some cheap imitation of freedom. We want nothing less than to be free to succeed in life knowing that what we build is not going to be redistributed liberally to others, or that what we hold as self-evident is tarnished by the waves of cultural populists.

In the book of Nehemiah, we’re told the story of the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. Walls in those times meant safety and sanctuary. Nehemiah was distraught with the fact that the wall was in ruins, so he petitioned the King of Persia for whom he worked to allow him to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the wall. It was no small thing. The Jewish people were beaten down, with no real leadership. But the rebuilding began.

First, there was ridicule. But in Nehemiah 4:6, “The people had a mind to work,” so the ridicule was ignored. Then came full opposition. So Nehemiah encouraged the people to pray, which they did, but he also put armed men to stand on the wall while the building continued. Nehemiah told the people, “God will fight for us,” but he never told them to put down their swords, or to stop rebuilding the wall. He encouraged the people not to lose heart because of their opponents, saying: “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” The wall was rebuilt in record time.

Culturally speaking, America is in a similar place right now. As for cultural walls that provide safety and sanctuary, America is at an inflection point. Like Maximus said in the movie Gladiator, “The time for half measures and talk is over.”

In December 1776, Thomas Paine wrote The Crisis. In that work, he wrote of the need for good men to rise up, to ensure that future generations would not only have freedom but enjoy freedom, with the freedom to spread freedom.

“These are the times that try men’s souls.” Paine said. “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”

In essence Paine was saying that freedom is priceless and too many sunshine patriots would choose to let freedom slip away rather than take the hard stand on the wall.

Samuel Adams once said, “The liberties of our country, the freedoms of our civil Constitution are worth defending at all hazards; it is our duty to defend them against all attacks…It will bring a mark of everlasting infamy on the present generation – enlightened as it is – if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of designing men.”

I will speak, and so should you. I will assess the issues of the day and measure their outcomes against the ideal of freedom, and so should you. I will vote, and I will act, and I will assemble, and I will worship, and so should you.

It is in the “doing” of freedom that we spread freedom.

There’s a poem from an anonymous author that reflects on a life well lived in the service of freedom. One stanza describes the sense attained in a final lookback with no regrets about being a poor steward of freedom.

I stood upon the wall, I stood my post.

A servant to the cause and a foe to the host.

Lie down and feel the rest, a rest well earned.

They called and I went, the world yet turns.

Freedom is not free. It requires time and treasure and toil. He gave us freedom so that we could spread freedom.

So we’d best be taking up that spot…up there, standing on the wall.

By: Phil Williams