Nehemiah 3:6-12: in context

The account of rebuilding Jerusalem's wall reads like a roll call of ordinary people, each repairing a section. Joiada and Meshullam repaired the old gate; goldsmiths and perfumers made repairs; rulers of districts took their portions; one man made repairs across from his own house; and Shallum, with his daughters, repaired another section. Section by section, name after name, next to one another, the whole wall was rebuilt by many hands, each responsible for a part.

The great work of rebuilding the wall was accomplished not by a few heroes but by many ordinary people, each taking responsibility for a section. The repeated phrase is telling: next to him, next to them, each person working alongside the others on their own portion of the wall. Goldsmiths and perfumers, whose trades had nothing to do with construction, took up the work; rulers labored alongside tradesmen; one man repaired the stretch of wall right in front of his own house; a father worked with his daughters. No one built the whole wall; everyone built their part, and together the whole was raised. There is a lovely picture here of how God's work gets done, and of our own part in it. Great things are accomplished not usually by a single hero doing everything, but by many people each taking responsibility for their own section, doing the part in front of them. And several things stand out. First, everyone had a part, including the unlikely, the goldsmiths and perfumers whose skills seemed unsuited to the work; the daughters of Shallum; people of every kind pitched in. There is a place in God's work for all of us, whatever our trade or standing. Second, the man who repaired the wall across from his own house reminds us that we often begin by taking responsibility for the part nearest us, the section in front of our own door, rather than waiting to do something grander elsewhere. And third, the work went forward because each did their own part, not leaving it to others; a wall where everyone waited for someone else would never rise. The call is to take up our own section, whatever it is, the part God has placed in front of us, and to do it, working alongside others each doing theirs, trusting that the whole is raised by many hands each taking responsibility for a part. The wall of Jerusalem rose because ordinary people, of every kind, each repaired the section next to them; and God's work still goes forward the same way.

Am I waiting to do something grand somewhere else, or leaving the work to others, rather than taking responsibility for my own section, the part God has placed in front of me, and can I learn from the rebuilders of the wall, ordinary people of every kind each repairing the stretch next to them, to take up my own part and do it, trusting the whole to be raised by many hands?