Exploring the Love of Christ on Ammons Circle

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The ominous big red sign on the front door of the house for sale grabbed our attention: “DANGER. THIS BUILDING IS UNSAFE FOR HUMAN OCCUPANCY. UNSAFE TO OCCUPY.”

Patti and I normally wouldn’t have bothered to go in, but our realtor was getting testy and we were desperate.

“Did you know,” she had reminded us with irritation thinly veiled with professional politeness, “you’ve looked at over a hundred homes?”

It was true. We thought our needs were simple enough: a 3/2 ranch close to Patti’s work that could be retrofitted with a main floor laundry. Oh, and it would help if the house were facing south so snow would melt faster.

Simple enough indeed. Unfortunately, Arvada, Colorado had plenty of housing stock that had everything but what we needed.

However, this house with the sign that shouted “You’re crazy if you buy me!”, did fit the bill. We just didn’t realize it at first. The place was so dilapidated and utterly hopeless, we failed to notice that the floor plan was exactly what we needed. It was only later, when we had gotten over the initial shock, that we realized the potential. So we sucked up our gut, bought it, and began the process of refurbishing it.

It took several months–actually, years. But the home we have been living in is almost done. Now we have turned our attention to our neighbors.

Patti and I have been wondering, What does it mean as Christians to love your neighbor as yourself? It seems that many in America don’t know their neighbors and view them with suspicion. It’s as if they see that same big red sign on their neighbor’s door that was once on ours: “DANGER. THIS BUILDING IS UNSAFE FOR HUMAN OCCUPANCY.”

Like the process of rebuilding our home, the process of loving our neighbors is taking a while. But we’re seeing some progress. Here’s what we’ve been doing.

We’re learning their names. Recalling names is my nemesis. I went years without knowing my neighbors’ names. But you can’t love someone you don’t know, so this past year I decided to get serious about it. It’s helped to keep a list of our neighbors’ names on our refrigerator.

We’re dog sitting their dogs. We’ve discovered that one way to love your neighbor is to love your neighbor’s dog. Since most people hate paying kennel fees, we’ve volunteered to watch our neighbors’ dogs when they go away. They love it.

I’m mowing their lawns. I don’t mow everyone’s lawn, of course. But in certain situations I offer my lawn mowing as a service to my neighbors. Sometimes I’ll volunteer to mow a neighbor’s lawn when they’re on vacation, or I’ll mow the widow’s lawn up the street.

I’m shoveling their snow. Again, I don’t shovel everyone’s snow. But I do look for opportunities to shovel an extra sidewalk here and there.

We’re growing a garden. We’ve discovered that gardens get you outside and visible. They also give you something to talk about and something to share with your neighbors.

We’re saving them money and we’re raising their property values. As I’ve pointed out, our house was the ultimate “fixer upper” when we bought it. Over the years, we’ve remodeled the interior, painted the exterior, rebuilt the fence and completely landscaped the front and back yards, increasing the value, not only of our home, but of the neighborhood. Our neighbors love this too. Not only do we save our neighbors money when we watch their dogs, we save them money when I mow their lawns when they’re on vacation and shovel their snow.

We’re treating them with respect and learning their stories. Not everyone on our block is ready for a relationship with their neighbor. Some have distilled their lifestyle into pure hermitry. They keep to themselves and avert their eyes when you’re in sight. But ever so slowly, Patti and I learn new details about them. There’s the widow up the block whom we almost never see and whose husband died after a long and devastating illness. There’s the man across from her who turned out to be the son of a famous WWII war hero. There’s the couple a few houses away who hate blacks. Then there’s the man on the other side of us who hates them. Patti and I are, in a sense, God’s stake out team; observing, learning, and waiting for the right moment to inject spiritual truth and love into the lives of these neighbors.

We’re being real with them. I’m an ordained minister and my neighbors know this. They also have a vague understanding that I help churches use men to work with widows and single parents and that I work from home. These facts create distance between Patti and I, on the one hand, and our neighbors on the other. So it’s important for them to see us dealing with every day situations the way ordinary people do. We mow our lawn, take out our trash, walk our dog, fix our roof, do our hobbies the same way anybody else does and they get to observe this.

We’re praying for them and sometimes with them. Everyone has crises in their lives.The crises that have occurred in the lives of our neighbors have given us opportunities to support them, pray for them and even pray with them. A death in the family, an upcoming surgery, an illness–whatever it is, we have seen these as opportunities to invite God’s presence into our relationships with our neighbors.

We’re taking our time and having fun. God has His own agenda with people. If we try to pick fruit before it’s ripe, we’ll bruise it. So many Christians see unbelievers as projects instead of people who need to be loved into the kingdom. It’s wonderful to relax and rest in the reality that God is maturing the fruit. In the process, Patti and I are having a blast.

To learn more about how to be a great Christian neighbor, check out The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

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