Who Is Our Neighbor?

 Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. —Mark 6:30-31

Who is your neighbor? Is it the people living next to you? Is it your fellow man? Or is it the strangers you might never meet?

Rey and I recently served at Second Harvest Heartland. We were at the tail end of the boxes. Rey put in Instant Potatoes and Dried Milk Powder in each package. I put a flyer in, date-stamped it and then sent it through the taper. The guy on the end loaded it onto a pallet.

A week's worth of food goes into each box. Feeding the most vulnerable around us. It was such a gift to us to be able to serve. We were so blessed by the experience that we'll be back serving the first week of June.

All of us, at some time or other, need help. Whether we're giving or receiving help, each one of us has something valuable to bring to this world. That's one of the things that connects us as neighbors—in our own way, each one of us is a giver and a receiver. —Mr. Rogers

What can you give to others?

Jesus says, "Don't hold back—give freely, and you'll have plenty poured back into your lap—a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, brimming over. You'll receive in the same measure you give." —Luke 6:38

Giving doesn't need to be at Second Harvest. Or at Feed My Starving Children. It can be making sure your neighbors are okay. Sharing with them something they may need. Distributing clothes to the needy. Working at the local Food Shelf. Maybe it's bringing a tent, bottled water, or food to the homeless. Gift cards at local restaurants for those begging on the street corner.

Hebrews 13:2 says, "Don't forget to extend your hospitality to all—even to strangers—for as you know, some have unknowingly shown kindness to heavenly messengers in this way."

It's scary going out of our comfort zones. But scary is good sometimes. 

It's important to show our kiddos how to serve the impoverished also. I'll never forget when we took our kids to downtown St. Paul to deliver Thanksgiving baskets. We had to walk up a rickety flight of stairs. The people inside were so happy to see us as we delivered a turkey, potatoes and all the goodies for a perfect Thanksgiving meal. We drove away so glad that we went. The boys talked about it for months on end.

One of our sons, Erik, went on to serve in AmeriCorps, in the inner-city of St. Paul. He even went to tutor in the toughest neighborhoods in DC and Cleveland. That's what an impact it made on him.

Reach out now…you'll be blessed.

Serve one another in love. —Galatians 5:13