missionary lesson

from our most recent newsletter:

Missionary Lesson:  Love thy neighbor

To be a missionary across the street or across the world one must come to terms with the most basic unit of loving engagement….being a good neighbor.  As the weather warms up and people are outside walking the neighborhood we are reminded about the importance of kind words and actions that pass between friends and strangers alike.  We have discovered that being a good neighbor does not mean “minding your own business” with an occasional friendly but distant wave while you collect your trash cans.  It is, rather, much more involved and a lot less convenient to be the kind of neighbor Jesus demonstrated.  If we can look to the Good Samaritan as our pin-up neighbor we soon discover that being inconvenienced and finding ourselves outside the bounds of safety are critical elements in biblical neighborliness. 

This last couple of months we have found ourselves put out and frustrated with our neighbors…many of them show up just at the wrong time, outstay their welcome, and leave us frustrated with our lack of progress on the work we had deemed ‘most important’ that day.  But through all this God gently shows us what it means to be gracious when we feel least like it and to give as freely as we have received.  We are being formed by the inconvenience as we receive it as a gift for our discipleship.  May the Lord of the Universe (and of our front door) keep disturbing our comfort and drawing us deeper into the lives of our neighbors…for the sake of the Kingdom that is coming.