Often times, we forget what it means to respect someone. We don’t know who is our neighbor and what they look like. We live in a compound and we don’t know anyone that is our neighbor. We can’t greet them or talk to them. They can’t also come to us when there is a crisis or something wrong. Our neighbor could be in school, office, home, on the street, at church or anywhere in particular. We ignore the people around us. We could just see someone on the road asking for help and all we need to do is help. Nothing much about it, instead we walk away.
Some churches have a special way of welcoming people for the first time. They show them love and take time to visit them at their houses, they also have a mobility plan for those who don’t have a means to come to church. This is not just about keeping them in the church as a permanent member but it’s love. Our neighbor needs you and I to understand them, to care for them. Some neighbors has shown us wickedness to the core, they have made us wicked, heartless, made us to forget the meaning of care and more. Some neighbor just needs help to carry stuffs inside the house, some just needs salt to cook, needs water to drink, some needs a listening ear. Some people just want be a good friend, have a good gist and laugh. A little time out to see amazing places, feel the weather, a shoulder to lean on, a person to Netflix and chill with, a prayer partner to encourage them in doing God’s work. A neighbor to help them get to the next level in life.
Some people are unnecessarily evil, scammers, plucked from hell, you see such neighbor, you flee from them, you watch them closely as they move and know when to tell them to stop or you block them as fast as you can. They are everywhere, planning our downfall, some we know and some we can never tell how evil they are. They strike without mercy, they make us sad, unhappy, they come in to destroy us and take all we have worked hard for. Just evil set of people, how do we even meet them? We just need to be careful of them, like they say:
Keep your enemies closer…………..
So, do you have an heart to care for your neighbor or not? Remember Luke 10:25-37, the last person helped the man on the road, took him to the hospital for treatment and paid for his bills without knowing him from anywhere. Somehow, the next person truly needs us.
As God in Heaven always come to our rescue when we need him, why not do so to the person next to us.
Happy Thanksgiving.
English 