And Who Is My Neighbor?
Growing up, I was taught that a neighbor was someone who lived on my street.
A house next to mine,
three houses down,
across the street...
These were my neighbors.
I’d see them out mowing their grass in the spring and summer time, occasionally see them at the store where I worked and even went to church with some of them on Sundays. I knew some of them by their first name, knew their kids, nieces, and nephews. All these neighbors looked like me, spoke like me, lived (as far as income level) like me.
When I moved out of my parents’ house and entered campus ministry, a lot of my worldview changed. I was no longer in a homogenous county but in a diverse city. From the slow pace of country living to the hustle of a university city. From small businesses to franchises and shopping centers minutes within one another.
With my move came a change in neighbor. Neighbor expanded beyond the proximity of my living address. Neighbor could be several streets down. Neighbor could look like me, but be totally different from me. Everything from income to fashion to summer vacation destinations. We were different, but we shared laughs, burdens, meals, and road trips with one another.
Sometimes, neighbor looked completely different from me and grew up in a country that I would likely never visit. Their perception of words like “freedom”, “compassion”, “touchdown”, “s’mores”, and “gospel either translated to something different than what I knew those words to be or they didn’t translate at all.
But these, too, were my neighbors. Over time, their concerns became my concerns as I tried to comprehend the burdens they faced while being away from their home. When they found others like themselves, they would stick together and come to gatherings together. It became easier to learn because you got to hear the same story from different points-of-view.
All of those that soon composed my neighborhood taught me to see things from someone else’s shoes, how to challenge myself in explaining my faith, and how to be present when someone was going through a hard time. Despite all our differences, I chose to see neighbor as someone I had a lot in common with. My neighbors knew what it was like to lose a loved one in death - so did I. My neighbors knew what it was like to have uncertainty about the future and how they were going to be able to afford necessities - so did I. My neighbors knew the joy of celebrating someone they loved dearly - so did I.
These people that I found myself living amongst (and still do today) have helped me see that “neighbor” is beyond geography and house placement. Neighbor is someone that I love in spite of our differences and continue loving. They may be different, but they are still people to me.
As politics continue heating up, exercise your right to vote tomorrow and vote according to your conscience and what you feel to be true and good not just for you, but for your neighbors as well. If your candidate loses and the other party wins, see the neighbors in your life who voted differently than you did as still being people. They have concerns, they have fears, they have joys, and they have hopes just like the rest of us.
Don’t let the media and politics strangle your compassion for your neighbor. As Andy Stanley says, “Don’t be critical of what God has yet to do in others because He has yet to do a lot in you, too.”
Jesus taught it best when he talked about who our neighbor was and how to love them in Luke 10:25-37...
25 Just then a religion scholar stood up with a question to test Jesus. “Teacher, what do I need to do to get eternal life?”
26 He answered, “What’s written in God’s Law? How do you interpret it?”
27 He said, “That you love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.”
28 “Good answer!” said Jesus. “Do it and you’ll live.”
29 Looking for a loophole, he asked, “And just how would you define ‘neighbor’?”
30-32 Jesus answered by telling a story. “There was once a man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
33-35 “A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, led him to an inn, and made him comfortable. In the morning he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my bill—I’ll pay you on my way back.’
36 “What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?”
37 “The one who treated him kindly,” the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
