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chapter_two.docxChapter Two
Waking Up to a Wall
In a single night, a wall changed everything.
That August evening, even Berliners who were used to Germany’s cool summer weather were surprised that the temperature had been so brisk. They hoped that the morning would bring a return to the beauty of the season.
On every level, it would not.
Men and women across Berlin woke up to find that every single street and bridge linking West Germany with East Germany had been closed down.
That day would come to be called “Barbed-Wire Sunday” for good reason. While Berlin slept, under the cover of darkness, construction began on the imposing barrier. Thousands of East German border police and dozens of Home Guard units, made up of thousands more troops, rushed to begin laying out 150 tons of barbed wire. Their carefully planned-out goal was to close every road and every bridge, cutting a great city literally in half. From that day on, the people of Berlin were haunted by a wall that held them back in more ways than we can imagine. 1
There was, of course, the physical wall itself. More than two tons of staples were used to anchor the barbed-wire wall that was the first version of the Berlin Wall, and 18,200 concrete posts were poured. In all, they laid eighty-seven miles of razor wire in one night, trapping millions who, just one day earlier, had been able to come and go as they pleased.
But the wall wouldn’t stay barbed wire. Beginning on August 15, the first of more than 45,000 separate reinforced concrete sections was poured. Each section of the wall would stand two inches short of twelve feet high—roughly as tall as the top of the backboards on a basketball court.
The East German guards replaced much of the barbed wire on top of the wall with a large, round pipe that was impossible to grip after they discovered that people would brave the terrible cuts of the razor wire to escape.
beyond the towering presence being constructed before them, there was also a social wall. Many families lived just a few blocks from their relatives in Berlin. Tragically, these families woke up to discover they now lived on opposite sides of the wall. On that first day, Berliners could still see each other through the barbed-wire fence. Some of the most terrible pictures and film clips show family members standing as close as they dared to the menacing soldiers who lined the wall with machine guns unslung and at the ready. Many family members would catch sight of a loved one and would yell and wave at each other. The people on each side held up children and pets for their loved ones to see. They shouted words of encouragement that the wall would go down—that they would be together soon.
They were wrong.
It would be a generation before that wall came down.
And even deeper still, another wall went up in the hearts of many who fell victim to the separation that day. There was a tremendous emotional price to be paid in the lives of people on both sides of that fence. Dip into eyewitness accounts of Barbed-Wire Sunday and beyond, and you’ll find deep evidence of emotional wounds and staggering wreckage.
Some eyewitnesses commented about the loss of access to a beautiful park or city building. Others poured out their hearts writing about the psychological wounds that came with the wall. Many experienced feelings of abandonment when not a single Western tank or soldier showed up to push back the wall or come to their aid, along with feelings of anger, fear, and a growing bitterness. There were rising sentiments of shock, grief, anger, confusion, and helplessness. The presence of these unseen emotions was every bit as real to them as the barrier dividing their city.
Whether the focus was on the physical, social, or emotional consequences for those who told the story, one theme remained consistent: the wall had robbed them of more than outsiders could completely comprehend.
Walls separate. They isolate. They cut us off from something . . . or from someone. East German leaders tried to offer the lie that the wall was for their protection from those in the West. But the Berliners knew the truth. The wall was there to blockade them from liberty, freedom, and hope. That is the nature of such walls.
It’s Time to Wake Up and Face Your Wall
I’ve discovered in my years of ministry that the walls people face today are often invisible to the untrained eye but are every bit as real and imposing as the wall that went up in Berlin that infamous day.
Every day wonderful, caring, loving, godly people like you and me wake up and find themselves facing life-choking, relationship-severing, legacy-altering, unseen walls. These walls are inescapable—we can’t just close our eyes to make them go away. These are walls we must face and find a way to break through . . . or suffer the loss of freedom that will always plague us until we do.
In life, the unseen walls hurt us the most. Some difficulties—whether they are barriers, disabilities, trials, or economic hardships—are out in the open and cannot be ignored. Spiritual walls, on the other hand, can hinder progress, destroy families, and crush hope for years without anyone realizing exactly what is holding them back.
For me, the walls that came when my daughter Lily experienced a host of medical problems were more imposing than her multiple surgeries and hospital stays. The walls were built when I didn’t know what to do with my nagging thoughts that this was not the way things were supposed to go. There was the overwhelming confusion of how God could allow this to happen to my child, the daunting sense of helplessness that left me feeling inadequate to rescue her, and the growing sense of fear that I might lose her.
Lily was only seven days old when we had to rush her back to the hospital because she was having trouble breathing. We were told she had a large hole in her heart called a ventricular septal defect. These birth defects come with varying degrees of severity, but the doctors informed us that we were dealing with a very delicate situation. Open-heart surgery was crucial, but if we went in too soon, Lily might not be strong enough to survive. On the other hand, if we waited too long, her already swollen and overworked heart could give out. So the mandate was to help her gain weight as quickly as possible in anticipation of an attempt to repair the hole—and, Lord willing, save her life.
When the heart doctor walked into Lily’s hospital room that day, we were totally unprepared for the news. We had a precious week-old child who, while having given us a scare and an ambulance ride, gave all indications of being a healthy and happy baby. We were expecting to find out that she was still dealing with some fluids she had aspirated when she was born. They were running all sorts of tests to discern what was going on, and the only reason the cardiologist was even in the conversation was because a chest X-ray had indicated some extra fluid around her heart.
It so happened that our two older daughters were in the room with Lana and me when we got the diagnosis, and both sets of grandparents were visiting as well. One minute we were enjoying the conversation of family and the relief that Lily was safe and being closely monitored; the next moment we were told matter-of-factly that Lily had a much bigger problem, that our world would be put on hold for at least the next year, and that there was a delicate situation inside the tiny body of our baby girl. Even worse were the words left unspoken: We suddenly were not promised that we would get to keep her very long.
It was as if all the air had left the room. My wife’s chest began to heave, as if she could not breathe. I wondered whether I was about to awaken from a horrible dream. We sat and listened to the details, the risks, the strategies, and the instructions in the way that only those who have been there can fully understand.
In a situation like this, the people around you somehow imagine that you can grasp all the details, and even dialogue about them, moments after the bomb has been dropped into your life. But while the voices continue with their unthinkable words, you’re trying to wrestle with the instant emotions that are welling up in your heart. The disappointment. The questions of how this could have happened and how it might have been prevented. The anger at how it was shared. The determination to do whatever it takes to overcome. The tiny shred of hope that maybe they’ve made a mistake and that all will be well when the follow-up test is done.
I had been speaking on breakthroughs for several years by the time that doctor walked in, but suddenly those breakthroughs seemed as far away as the rejoicing that is supposed to come with the arrival of a child. Instead I could almost feel the walls going up around me.
Those same walls forced me to take a closer look at the truths of the Bible you’ll read here, the truths that unlock the secret of the Faith Breakthrough. And those walls helped me understand how awesome it is when they finally come down.
