Today, I’m continuing my article series on “What Leads to A Thriving Life” using the word THRIVING as an acrostic.
TODAY, I’d like to talk what the letter N represents in this acrostic: NEIGHBORS
You may be thinking…why talk about an article on “neighbors” and what do you mean by “neighbor” in the first place?
Let’s tackle the 2nd question first.
According to Christian tradition, a Jewish teacher asked this same question of Jesus of Nazareth many years ago and the conversation is recorded in the book of Luke Chapter 10:29-37. His specific question – “And who is my neighbor?” was a response to Jesus’ statement in the verse before reminding the listening audience of the importance of loving a neighbor.
Jesus tells the story of a Jewish man who was attacked by bandits and left for dead on the side of the road. Two different religious people (a priest and a temple assistant) walked by the man and essentially ignored him.
In contrast, a Samaritan came by and took care of the man, providing wound care and even taking him to a place where he could be taken care of.
Jesus ended up by brilliantly asking the teacher which of the three characters was a “neighbor” to the man attacked by bandits?
The teacher astutely pointed out it was the Samaritan and then seeing that the teacher got the point, he affirmed that the teacher was correct and urged him to act like the Samaritan acted in life.
There are at least a few important conclusions we can draw from this:
A neighbor is not necessarily just someone who lives nearby you, though it certainly could be!
A neighbor is not necessarily someone who looks like us, believes likes us, or acts like us. (in fact, historically we know that in this era Jews and Samaritans hated each other!)
Jesus was less concerned with answering the question of who a neighbor is than He was with reminding us HOW TO BE A NEIGHBOR.
Now, let me return back to the second question which was why am I even writing an article on “neighbors?”
Well thus far, we’ve talked about the following:
T– taking responsibility
H-honesty and humility
R-resilience
I-inspiration
V-victor mindset
I-integrity
Notice that none of the things I have previously talked about happen individually or in a vacuum.
In other words, we all need community to practice living out these ideals.
And we don’t get to experience community unless we learn to be neighbors to people and see people as neighbors.
Now, is this risky? Scary? Maybe even make one vulnerable to being hurt by others?
Sure. It can be risky to live an open-hearted life towards others, but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
In fact, today (the day I am writing this article), we had our next-door neighbor friends over for lunch and it was an awesome time and opportunity to practice neighboring :)
SUMMARY:
Be a good neighbor so that you can learn to connect with and love others and receive love back from others.
PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE:
This holiday season consider taking an inventory of the people around you, both literally around you (in your neighborhood) and also people you come across every day.
Ask yourself these two questions:
How can I be a better neighbor to my fellow man or woman? Is there someone I know of who is need that I could help?
Do I have neighbors with whom I share a trusting relationship in community of some kind?
Let’s go THRIVE, shall we?
Sean
