“Then said I un­to them, ‘Ye see the dis­tress that we are in, how Jerusalem li­eth waste, and the gates there­of are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a re­proach.’ Then I told them of the hand of my God, which was good up­on me, as al­so the king’s words that he had spo­ken un­to me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strength­ened their hands for this good work” (Ne­hemi­ah 2:17 and 18).

The sce­nario above is that Jerusalem was in ru­ins; they were over­thrown by an­oth­er na­tion, and the peo­ple were all scat­tered. At that time, Ne­hemi­ah was tak­en in­to the king’s palace, where he served the king, yet he was very con­cerned about his home­land and those still liv­ing there in pover­ty. God stirred up his heart to re­build Jerusalem; hence, the rea­son Je­re­mi­ah took up the chal­lenge, en­cour­ag­ing oth­ers to be a part of what he in­tend­ed to do.

As I read the above scrip­ture, our home­land, Trinidad and To­ba­go, came to my mind and the many chal­lenges that we have and are still en­coun­ter­ing over the years. While our sit­u­a­tion is most def­i­nite­ly not like Jerusalem, I saw cer­tain things done there that made Jerusalem shine once more, tak­ing on its for­mer glo­ry. I firm­ly be­lieve that Trinidad and To­ba­go can rise again to its for­mer beau­ty or even bet­ter.

I have heard in­di­vid­u­als us­ing words to de­fine our na­tion, which tells a sto­ry of hope­less­ness. Yet, against the back­drop of dark­ness, I be­lieve there is still light. Per­mit me to share briefly a few things that can be help­ful if our na­tion is go­ing to pros­per once more.

First­ly, as I searched Scrip­ture, I saw that Ne­hemi­ah had a vi­sion and a plan for how he would ac­com­plish what he want­ed to see hap­pen: the re­build­ing of the bro­ken-down Jerusalem. As a na­tion, there must be a vi­sion backed up with a plan that is at­tain­able.

We read in Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vi­sion, the peo­ple per­ish; but he that keep­eth the law, hap­py is he.” This per­tains to all as­pects of life, in­clud­ing na­tion build­ing.

On a per­son­al note, let me en­cour­age you in your own per­son­al life; you must have vi­sion and a plan if you are go­ing to suc­ceed and move for­ward. If our na­tion is go­ing to rise again, the lead­er­ship must have a vi­sion al­so and a plan to ac­com­plish the vi­sion.

What is very im­por­tant is that vi­sion must be sold to the pop­u­la­tion. Ne­hemi­ah did ex­act­ly that; he got the peo­ple to buy in­to what he was do­ing. Lead­er­ship must not just tell peo­ple what “they” want to do with­out mak­ing an at­tempt to get them in­volved al­so.

The Apos­tle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthi­ans 1:10: “Now I be­seech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Je­sus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no di­vi­sions among you; but that ye be per­fect­ly joined to­geth­er in the same mind and in the same judge­ment.”

I em­pha­sise “that ye all speak the same thing.” This is a great as­set when peo­ple are see­ing eye-to-eye on some­thing; it will have more co­he­sive­ness in the group, and even so, in na­tion build­ing.

Sec­ond­ly, the place­ment of hu­man re­sources — “no square pegs in round holes” — let us re­mem­ber that the coun­try and peo­ple come first, and any form of favouritism must take a side if we are go­ing to rise again. This can hap­pen, so there must al­ways be a safe­guard against this, for if you want the best re­sults, it is cru­cial that you have the best skilled per­son­nel on the job.

Paul the Apos­tle, writ­ing in Eph­esians 4:8 to 12: “Where­fore he saith, When he as­cend­ed up on high, he led cap­tiv­i­ty cap­tive, and gave gifts un­to men.”

“Now that he as­cend­ed, what is it but that he al­so de­scend­ed first in­to the low­er parts of the earth? He that de­scend­ed is the same al­so that as­cend­ed up far above all heav­ens, that he might fill all things. And he gave some to be apos­tles, some to be prophets, some to be evan­ge­lists, and some to be pas­tors and teach­ers, for the per­fect­ing of the saints, for the work of the min­istry, for the ed­i­fy­ing of the body of Christ.”

Note: these gifts giv­en were spe­cif­ic, and those re­ceiv­ing them were to use them to do what they were called to do by God. No one em­ploys a plumber to do weld­ing, and this prin­ci­ple al­so ap­plies to na­tion-build­ing. The best per­son for the job at hand.

Third­ly, there must be a will­ing spir­it among peo­ple to work; this is where the rub­ber meets the road.

We read in Proverbs, “The hand of the dili­gent shall bear rule, but the sloth­ful shall be un­der trib­ute” (Proverbs 12:24). “The soul of the slug­gard de­sireth, and hath noth­ing; but the soul of the dili­gent shall be made fat” (Proverbs 13:4).

For our blessed na­tion to rise once more, the peo­ple must be pre­pared to work, and judg­ing where we are present­ly, it will take go­ing the ex­tra mile to get the job done. The peo­ple in the time of Ne­hemi­ah had a will­ing heart. It is said that the peo­ple “strength­ened their hands for this good work.”

Fi­nal­ly, there must be, at all times, voic­es of en­cour­age­ment for the peo­ple. Ne­hemi­ah con­sis­tent­ly built the peo­ple up, let­ting them know that their goal to re­build Jerusalem could be achieved.

Lead­ers must be care­ful about what they are say­ing to the pop­u­la­tion. Do your words in­spire, mo­ti­vate, or en­cour­age? Are love, com­pas­sion, and em­pa­thy seen by those you lead? If not, I en­cour­age you to make the nec­es­sary ad­just­ment, for life is a learn­ing process.

Trinidad and To­ba­go needs us all if we are go­ing to rise again.

Stay strong and be blessed.