2. My neighbor-Who is my neighbor?
One of our challenges in having sensitivity towards our neighbor is that we are bombarded with bad news through various forms of media. This makes us become desensitized to sad news and causes us to just comfortably walk away from it. We conclude that there is nothing we can do since we don’t know the people or they’re too far from us. Over time, this makes us grow indifferent towards the lives’ of those in our proximity. There are those close enough to us that we can actually do something about.
But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”……….
And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Based on the Good Samaritan parable (See Luke 10:29-37), anyone that we come in contact with is considered our neighbor. Anywhere we go, there will be someone to love. We have the challenge and the opportunity to work towards people’s benefit wherever we are. Whether we are wearing the hat of a parent, a CEO, a church leader, or a mechanic, we are called to love the person who is coming across our path.
Jesus’ parable illustrated that even religious people can have a designated method or time that they are willing to care about others. A levite and a priest ignored the need right before them because they had something else on their calendar that they needed to get to.
We can’t just love people in a scheduled time slot by serving/volunteering within our church or in the community. Loving people cannot be a compartment in our lives. Neither can it be a valve that we turn on or off based on the busyness of the day or convenience level. It makes loving people a full-time job! Caring about man’s condition has to capture our hearts.
We have the privilege of loving the person who is going to come across our path today/this week.
I will share about the impact of loving others in our lives in the next devotional.