Who is my neighbor?

"Who is my neighbor," is an age old question and probably has many answers, but basically it is anyone you come into contact with. 

We have been living in our Motorhome full time for the past few weeks and for the most part enjoying it. The spot we have been in has been surrounded by two families with a combination of 6 or 7 smaller children. Melody and our little dog, Chewy, have made a great impression on them (I guess it's the grandmother coming out). Yesterday we moved from that spot to another location in the RV park. As we were packing up and getting ready to move one of the little boys came up to me and ask, "Hey Neighbor, what are  you doing?" After we finished up packing all of them gathered around and hugged Melody, petted the dog and posed for pictures and two of the little boys picked flowers (budding weeds) and gave them to Melody. Definitely the grandmother coming out!

As I thought about that incident I thought about the few words from that little boy, "Hey Neighbor…" We both had talked with them and their parents, (nice folks struggling with different problems). What did we do to earn the title, "Neighbor"? Is it as simple as being nice, listening to small boys tell you about the birds they saw? Could it be as simple as spending time talking with a mother with several small children and giving her some "adult" time? Is it as simple as letting the father tell you a little about his day and his work? Perhaps it is….

Jesus was asked in Luke 10 "who is my neighbor" and he told a story about a Samaritan, ever heard it. It is a story of a man who went to extremes to assure the needs of another were met; it was all about giving what was needed at the time. I would say that it is not always about money or things. Sometimes people just need other people to care enough to stop and listen for a few minutes and show that you care.

Who is your neighbor?

Russ Lawson

Father's Day

Father's day is here once again. How do I know? It's the commercials! Everything you see or hear is telling you what is the best gift to buy for your father and frankly I'm a little tired of it. How is it that a day established to honor fathers has become a marketing ploy?

I don't golf, don't need a new car, I have all the after shave I can use and I don't need another tie. Whatever happened to the simple things? The days when the kids made you breakfast in bed or gave you a handmade card? What about the simple hug around the neck and the best words in the world, "I love you dad". It is the time spent together sharing a meal and talking about our lives, sharing what makes us happy or is breaking our hearts. I don't know about you, but I've been given "things" through the years, but have very few of them now. The things that I have held on to are the cards and the hugs, those special words and special times together.

How did our society go from intimate relationships with the father to trying to imitate love through the giving of money or things? Back in the 1970's there was a song by Harry Chapin that came out called, "Cat's in the cradle". The song dealt with the life of a father and son. The father was so busy making a living that he never had time for the son and when the son became an adult he never had time for the father… life got in the way of living.

Perhaps that's what has happened with our relationship to our Heavenly Father. Most of the surveys I have seen show that church attendance in our nation has declined in the past 50 years. The same surveys show that many, many more mothers attend a church than do fathers (the example to young men). It seems that we are so busy trying to survive, trying to make a living, trying to enjoy life to the fullest, that we just don't have time for our Heavenly Father anymore. We try to compensate for it by giving larger contributions so that someone else might be hired to fill our place.

The greatest commandment, according to Jesus is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37). If you don't, how will your children learn to do it and how will they return it to you?

Another favorite passage of mine is found in Deuteronomy 11:18-22 where God gives some special instructions to fathers. He says: "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow, to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him…" It seems it is about relationships and actually TALKING about what is most important…

Can you say "priorities"? Perhaps that is the key! Oh and Happy Father's Day!

Doing the Dance

I was talking with a coworker Daryl the other day about the flow of the work we do behind the counter. It's a small space and we often have to dodge one another or reach around one another to get to a particular piece of equipment, computer or stack of papers. As the "trainee" I watched him one day and told him that he "had the dance steps all down". In other words, he had a pattern of movement, he knows how to move efficiently and reach each machine or paper as it was needed.

When we serve our God we do the same thing according to a pattern shown us in the New Testament. Paul encouraged Timothy regarding the pattern he followed in

2 Timothy 1:12a-13 where he wrote: "Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus."

I remember seeing an advertisement many years ago for a program to teach you how to dance. You took paper cutouts that looked like shoe soles and placed them on the floor in a particular pattern. Then you practiced following that pattern with your own feet as you taught yourself to dance. If it worked everyone was happy.

God's Word gives us the pattern, the steps to follow for us to make God happy and to be happy ourselves. If you want to know how to serve God, then follow the pattern. Many today are telling you that the pattern of God's word is outdated or no longer relevant, but that's not true. God has given us His Word and he intends for it to last forever with no additions or subtractions. Now you can argue with me about that, but how are you at arguing with God.

Jesus himself said, "I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll.  And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll." (Revelation 22:18-19)

So could it be that as you dance through this life you need to pay a little closer attention to the pattern which God has laid down for us?