Love Your Neighbor

It has been a week! 

Teaching preschool may sound super easy, and maybe it is compared to everything else. If that's the case, I'm not cut out to teach anything else. 

Between all of the chaos of getting back in the swing of things at school, I've continued to think through the message from Sunday. Our pastor, along with one of the branch pastors, spoke on Jeremiah 29:5-7.

Our church is casting vision for the next several years, it's the 20/20 vision that will hopefully be a reality in 2020. See what they did there? 

But the big push is for us as a church to not follow a messenger. But that we're about the message. That we not become spectators. But we're participants. As I've mentioned multiple times, the senior pastor is a really great teacher/preacher. And in order to maintain the health of the church, it's imperative that we're not about following him. 

On Sunday, these pastors shared about the necessity of being present in the community. That our precise location is a place where we are called to be. Called to be more than space-fillers. The other dude talked about how him and his wife lived in a condo for two years and never painted a single wall because they knew it was temporary. At this moment, Adam and I looked at each other with a knowing look. 

We've had this conversation before. I think my parents even witnessed it. 

What's the point? We're going to move one day. We'll only have to paint it back. Blah, blah, blah. 

But as we continue to make steps towards not putting roots down here, we're cutting off opportunities to be present right where we are. No, painting or not painting our walls makes no difference in the kingdom. But our mentality of what this place, this season, this time is can have a difference. We can be missing opportunities to point people to Jesus.

They said repeatedly, "Wherever you are, be all there." Which is originally a Jim Elliot quote. And I can tell you this, I'm not all here. I'm a little bit here. A little bit in Georgia. A little bit in North Carolina. A little bit overseas. I'm a little spread out. And I can only imagine that plays a part in my lack of deep, meaningful relationships here. When part of me is ready to jet in a moment's notice, it makes it hard for the other part of me to really connect with the people who are in my life right now. 

But this isn't just a holding cell. 

Or. I don't want it to be. 

The thing is, we go to church in Seattle. We live in Bothell. The people we see on a regular basis, are not the people we see at church. And if we're talking about really loving our neighbor and being present with our community, then we need to look a little closer. 

As they were talking on Sunday, I thought about where Adam and I currently live. Adam refers to it as Sesame Street because we have so. many. kids. on our street. On any given afternoon, there will be at least 4-8 kids out playing together. 

For someone who feels more at ease with kids than peers, I should find this to be an ideal location to love my neighbor. How hard is it to hang out with kids? How much easier to get to know the people we live around when there's kids everywhere! Because I'll be honest, we refer to our literal neighbor, the door right next to ours as, "Creepo." Probably not doing such a good job loving that neighbor. 

So, we gave it a try this week. One evening, when there were kids out playing, Adam and I just went and hung out outside. We already knew one little boy. But we met 2 more. And you know what? It feels weird at first. You wonder if people think you're the creep. But I know we have to start somewhere. 

We can't keep residing here and not living here. 

We (read: I) can't look ahead to what God may have for us down the road and miss the opportunities here. My friend that led our Haiti trip texted me and told me they wanted us to pray about moving to Haiti next fall for a year with them.  I wanted to respond with a committed, "YES!" Adam looked at me and said, "Don't even think about it!" I'm quick to want to abandon this ship, and I know it's preventing me from stewarding this time well.

So, I do want to do a better job of loving my neighbor. I want to be present in our community. I want to be participating with the Body, not spectating.