If You Moved, Would Your Neighbors Miss You?
Photo by mathyas-kurmann-fb7yNPbT0l8-unsplash.jpg
Hmm. That’s a challenging question. We have close relationships with several of our neighbors, and I think they would be sad if we moved. Some probably wouldn’t miss all the cars at our large parties. Some would hardly notice.
Loving your neighbor is an emphasis for our small house church this summer, following studies on prayer and becoming a disciple.
We are combining prayer and loving your neighbor this month as we study an excellent book: Jesus Next Door: A 30-day Prayer Guide to Help You Practically Love the People Around You.
We do a lot of conversation as part of the message each Sunday. Some had responses similar to ours to that question. Several didn’t think their neighbors would care, or even notice. But a few felt they would be missed.
We moved on to the question Jesus was asked when He said the greatest commandment was to love God with your whole being, and the second was to love your neighbor as yourself. The expert in the Law responded: Who is my neighbor?
Great question. Yes, the people who live in my neighborhood. But so many more are my neighbors. I started naming some—and how God had led us to be neighbors.
Family can be neighbors.
During the early part of our marriage, most ofmy husband’s’ family lived with us: His sister and her husband moved from Illinois to California to find a new job. Our home was their home for three months. Then his dad lived with us the last year and half of his life before he died from cancer.
Later his much younger half brother moved in with us for 2 years before going into the army and another 2 years after his military stint. That was like having two different people with us. Finally, his mother was in our home for three years in her middle stages of Alzheimer’s.
And all of our children came home before they headed out on their own.
Our children’s friends can be neighbors
Our daughter Michelle and I both seem to have a “rescue” gene. She had a runaway friend and invited her to be our daughter till she and her parents could work things out. She also had a college friend who lived with us as she worked for me.
Our son Josh’s friends seemed to feel welcome in our home, so sometimes they moved in—intermittently, or for several months.
Mostly we loved having them as in-our-home neighbors.
People with needs can be neighbors
We all have “neighbors” with needs. And perhaps we need to have open hearts and willing hands to step in, living out the love of God.
Maybe it’s for kids in foster care, or elderly people needing assistance. Yesterday I talked with a recent college graduate who is thrilled to begin doing therapy with autistic kids.
Some find their best neighborliness is to provide school supplies for inner city schools. Some bake cookies or make lasagna. Others fix cars or sprinklers or generators.
Mine? Homeless people. God put a passion on my heart, and gave me an assignment to live it out. Almost always, homeless people feel invisible. My desire is to help them feel visible, to give dignity, to ask and use their name, to find out how they ended up on the street. To ask how I could pray for them. And to give them a generous gift. Sometimes in two minutes, or ten minutes or even 30 minutes.
So the questions: Who are your neighbors? Would they miss you? How might God want to flow His love through you to your neighbors?
C2021 Judy Douglass
Thanks to our Antioch 21 pastor Wayne Wilkins for his passion for prayer, becoming disciples and loving our neighbors. And for guiding us to rich conversations around this book, Jesus Next Door.
Related articles:
Giving Visible Grace to the Invisible Homeless
What to Wear as a Follower of Jesus: Kindness