Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: NEIGHBOR (06/01/17)
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TITLE: My Corner | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marlene Bonney
06/06/17 -
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Welcome to earth and my world. It is a complicated place—only because we have made it so. Life, before sin edged its way in, was meant to be sweet and simple, serene and peaceful.
I raise my face to the sky and gaze at the wonders of nature above and all around me, even as I water the garden and take in the scents and sights of budding vegetation and floral offerings. My neighborhood rises to meet the day, human sound drowning out nature and subtly delegating it to the back seat of my awareness. House curtains and doors open and, like characters in a play, the actors enter the stage of the outside world. I marvel as I watch from the sidelines, that I have lived here for decades and how few of them I know personally—these strangers who are my neighbors.
Gone are the days when mothers chatted back and forth over fences separating their yards, when housewives arrived on doorsteps to borrow a cup of sugar or conversed over their clotheslines or even when children gathered in one yard to play together—now more interested in arranging play-dates with far away friends. A distant wave or smile of acknowledgement is all we seem to share today. It is an anomaly that I learn more about strangers’ lives as they yak over their cell phones while out running errands or shopping or standing in line at the grocery store.
I have nice neighbors. Neighbors who lend a helping hand with shoveling snow, raking leaves, or place the thrown newspaper by my door. And, I tend to reciprocate in kind when possible. But, I began wondering lately,
“Who is my neighbor, Lord?”
Is he the stranger at my door, asking for money for ‘a bus ticket to get to my mother’s funeral’?
“Who is my neighbor, Lord?”
The modern day panhandler standing in front of the Post Office asking for a buck for some breakfast?
“Who is my neighbor, Lord?”
Is it the guy who stopped me outside a restaurant, claiming his car had run out of gas in the unseen distance and needing to borrow some cash?
“Who is my neighbor, Lord?”
A street corner beggar with cardboard sign that says he will work for money?
“Who is my neighbor, Lord?”
Outside a shopping mall entrance, is it the gal who needs money ‘to buy my baby some diapers’, who is also talking on a cell phone fancier than my own?
“Who is my neighbor, Lord?”
The teenager who said he would help my husband with yard work for pay, but stopped after half an hour because he didn’t want to get his shoes dirty?
“Who is my neighbor, Lord?”
The middle-aged lady from church who calls, one-at-a-time, each member in the church directory for monetary assistance because her monthly check is not coming for another week? Who friends have sat down with to explain how to budget, but she doesn’t follow through?
“Who is my neighbor, Lord?”
The grown-ups who “cheat the system,” on welfare from their infancy, who are caught up in the vicious cycle of preying on compassionate targets?
“Who is my neighbor, Lord?”
The man who ‘borrowed’ our lawn mower gas can to get his car going, promising to return it—but didn’t? Who said he noticed our “We Love Our Church” sign in the yard and figured nice people must live here?
OR, is it just the ones who live one or two doors down who trade our kindnesses with their own? Who live in our own geographical slice of humanity, our own little corner of the world where we can make a difference—or not?
I struggle with ministering to people who I don’t think deserve it—until God chastises me and reminds me that none of us “deserve” anything and, “there, but for the grace of God, go I.” It is obvious that Jesus was apt to choose the most unworthy for His attention, and was taken advantage of for His goodness. He did not make distinctions between the suitable and the unsuitable and considered anyone he met—especially any in need—to be His neighbor.
I am challenged to do the same, praying for discernment for ways to share God’s love and compassion without enabling bad behaviors.
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