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Neighbors

by Jerry Ousley  
8/19/2011 / Christian Living

Neighbors can be good or bad. Some neighbors are the best of friends and watch out for one another while other neighbors can be bitter enemies and hard to get along with. I've got neighbors who fit into both categories. On one side there are people who are very good neighbors. They'd do pretty much anything they could for you. They watch out for your property when you're gone and we do the same thing for them. They are good neighbors to have and I'm thankful for them.

In the summertime if he mows his lawn before I do he will cross over the property line and hit a lick or two on our side, and if I mow first I do the same for him. When the leaves fall in autumn we follow the same pattern. If he mulches leaves first he'll get nearly over to my driveway and if I mulch first I'll go as close to the tree beside his house as I can get. If a limb falls out of his tree onto our property I'll dispose of it and he does likewise.

On the other side however we have a neighbor who can be very difficult to get along with. Now I wouldn't say that we are enemies. The guy is likeable enough. But he tends to be a bit bossy. When he cuts his grass he won't come an inch over the line even though I try to do the same thing for him as I do for our other neighbor. If a limb falls out of our tree he'll toss it back over the property line.

I was out mowing one day and he came over and asked, "What are we going to do with that tree?" It was getting fairly large and could use some trimming. He was worried that it might fall someday onto his property. I hesitated because even though I had thought about it before I wasn't ready to pay for that just yet and he took advantage of that hesitation and added, "I think we should take it down." Now this tree was without a doubt on our side of the property line. It was our tree. We cherish the trees in our yard because of the wonderful shade they provide. We didn't want to take the tree down. That was when I finally spoke up and I said as nicely as I could, "Well, we're not going to take it down. I will look into getting it trimmed but it isn't coming down." He didn't like that very well but that's what we did.

As Christians, even though it may rub against the grain still we are to be the best witness we can be even to grumpy neighbors. The subject of neighbors came up one day in a conversation between Jesus and a lawyer. You can read the story in Luke 10:25-37. The lawyer asked Jesus what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus turned the tables on the man and asked him what the law had to say about it. The man quoted the scripture about loving God with everything in him and loving his neighbor as much as he loved himself. Jesus told him that this was correct; to follow that law and he would live. But the lawyer wasn't satisfied with that answer and added the question, "Just who is my neighbor?" That's when Jesus told the story of the "Good Samaritan." You can read it for yourself but we need to realize that the basis of this story was that the man robbed and injured was passed by a priest and a Levite, both of whom were supposed to be doing the work of God. They ignored the man and left him for dead, even crossing to the other side of the road. But the Samaritan was considered a worthless person to the Jews. Wouldn't you know it, he was the guy who helped the man, took him to an inn to recover and even paid his bill. Jesus finished by asking the question, "Who in the story was neighbor to the injured man?" Of course the only right answer could be the Samaritan and I'm certain the lawyer answered with a big lump in his throat.

In reality our neighbors aren't just those people who live close to us. They aren't the ones we choose to like. In fact each and every human being we encounter is a neighbor to us. We can be religious, a minister, or a deacon in a church. But if we don't treat everyone we come into contact with like the guy we live next to then we aren't really loving our neighbor as much as we love ourselves, now are we? Whether we like them or not is of no consequence. They are our neighbors and we are obligated to treat them as such. So with that in mind, let's determine to be good neighbors and our neighbors might just be good back to us.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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