A lot of people probably don't know that I am unemployed. Although I receive a small compensation (much less than what I was making working, but more than an average guy making $8/hr gets) times are tough and money is tight. So as you may know the first fiery dart I usually get hit with in my brain is "hey, are you going to be able to afford to do this? Won't it keep you from doing it for yourself later?" It is these type of selfish hits that are most effective on people, but once I put my mind to something the dart usually bounces back. We all need to get in this mind state, stop being selfish and still "just do it."
A few weeks ago I was mowing our yard. The rain had been coming down pretty good and it got quite tall. One of my neighbors is a man who I hardly have seen in the past 8 months. I think I may have seen him about 3-4 times just going out to the mailbox, and far enough away to raise my hand to wave but I have never noticed him paying attention. He's a quiet guy, keeps to himself, and has never bothered anybody. To make a long story short, the grass was so high, I noticed that all he had was a push mower and out of desperation he had just simply mowed paths around his house so he could navigate around it and to the back building. I told my wife, I cannot let it go I was going to mow his yard. I did as much as I could without killing my mower (there was a big spot where branches and such had fallen) and getting too close to invade his privacy, but I did get most of the front and back yards done. My biggest worry after deciding to do it was that I would insult him.
Again, I ask for no recognition, no thank you, no hey man I really appreciate this, I just felt the need to do it. God tells us we are to love our neighbor as our own brother. I was glad to do this small thing, and I didn't even run short of gas for the mower that day. Sometimes that is the way Satan keeps us from doing for others, false results, false endings injected in our head and then we say, well maybe I'll do it later when I have the time or money.
Well, here is the main theme of today's blog. I am going to mow his yard again this weekend (if he doesn't beat me to it), not because I think I need to, not because I feel sorry for him, but because I want to. I saw a quote on a book I think it was in my VOM flyer this month, it said, what if we stopped thinking like Americans and started acting like Christians. So my challenge today for you (no matter when you read this) is: do something nice for your neighbor, go by and say hi, help them with a project, bake them some cookies, do something they may not notice until later, but do it without looking for something in return. This weekend lets all be Americans, but also be Christians.
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