What to Do When You Want to Restart a Project You Walked Away From

Stephen Bedard had pastored the same area churches

for nine years when he stepped away. There was no blow-up and

no scandal. His family had moved, and the year of commuting had

become more than he could keep up. He knew it was time to go,

and he left without another church lined up. The break

stretched into years. He got sick, and his family went

through a rough patch. The pulpit he had stood in for

nearly a decade started to feel like a part of his life that was

over, a thing he used to do. The truth was, Stephen wasn't done

pastoring. He just didn't know it yet. We'll come back to what

happened for Stephen, but

first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm

Bart Leger. I'm not proud of my quitting experience. I left

college after my first year. At the time, it felt like I'd never

go back. I figured I'd be okay moving forward, but it always

bugged me. I did go back later and finished. Then I kept going

through graduate work and eventually a doctorate. There's

a doctor in front of my name because of a degree I quit and

came back to. The year I walked away, I couldn't have told you

any of that was coming. A lot of us have something we started

with everything we had and then let go of. A book you were

writing or a ministry you were sure God had put in front of you

or a project you started, and walking away felt right at the

time, and it may well have been right. Now you look at the thing

and wonder whether you quit too soon. Here's what keeps most

people from coming back. A restart means admitting the

first run didn't get finished, and it means telling people who

watched you walk away that you're trying again. And then

there's always the fear that you won't finish it again a second

time. That's a lot to swallow for something you might put down

again. Nehemiah picked up a project a whole city had given

up on. It's in Nehemiah 2, verse 17.

The wall had been down a long time, and it had already been

quit on. records an earlier rebuilding effort that got shut

down by royal order, and the people stopped. By the time word

reached Nehemiah in Persia, the report was that the wall was

torn down and the gates were burned. So the work in front of

him was work that people had already tried and abandoned.

Then look at what he did before he said one word about it.

Chapter 2 says,

Now, listen to the verb in verse 17.

Nehemiah had the king's letters and the authority to use them,

and the first thing out of his mouth was an invitation. His

plan was to get a whole city building. Here's how they did it

in chapter 3. Somewhere around 40 crews, and the chapter keeps

saying the same thing about them.

That wall went up in 52 days. A ruin that old that people had

already given up on once closed in under two months because

everybody built the part in front of them. So, two things in

Nehemiah's order. Go by yourself and look at the thing itself.

Before you announce a comeback to anybody, then pick the piece

of it that's in front of you where you already are. Three

years in, a church asked Stephen to step in as its adjunct pastor

for three months. Three months and then done. He said yes. Then

came the thing he hadn't counted on. In his own words, he was

amazed at how much he had missed being a pastor. Three months of

filling in told him something about himself that three years

of thinking about it never had. A pastor's retreat came after

that, then a stretch of teaching at a Bible college. By the end

of it, he was applying to churches again and looking

forward to it. The church that called him was in his own

hometown. The calling he thought he had closed the book on was

waiting for him to come back and open it. Notice the size of the

thing that reopened. Not a church plant, three months of

filling a pulpit while somebody else figured out their next step.

That was the section of wall in front of where he was standing.

And he built it. Here's today's challenge. Write down the thing

that you walked away Then write down what it would take to do

the smallest piece of it this week. Just one piece the size of

a phone call or a single page. Then do that piece before Sunday.

And tell one person what you're doing. Nehemiah didn't rebuild

the wall by himself, and he didn't plan to. Father, Nehemiah

stood in front of a ruin that people had already given up on,

and he asked the whole city to build it with him. Thank you

that you aren't finished with the things we put down. For

everybody listening who has something shelved and keeps

wondering about it, give them the nerve to look at it squarely

and the humility to ask for help. Show us the peace in front of us,

and let us start there. In Jesus' name, amen. If this

episode encouraged you today, would you share it with someone

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only takes a second, and it might make a difference in

someone's day. Thanks for joining me on Daily Devotions

for Busy Lives. Remember, every man on that wall built a part in

front of his own house, and the whole thing went up in 52 days.

Pick your piece and start there. Come back next time for more

encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth. Until

then, God bless and have a great day.