A Challenge or Two

For the past couple of months I have been working with my former classmates from high school to organize our upcoming 25th reunion. There is a great temptation when you are thrown back together with old friends to fall into old habits. One of the temptations is obvious. There may have been old habits that your friends associate with the old you. Maybe you were prone to swearing or gossiping or drinking, but whatever it was the temptation is obvious.

It is also easy enough to overcome when you have been removed from these friends for a long time. You have new habits with your new self that have taken the place of the old habits and just because you are around your old friends that does not mean you have to give in to the old temptations. So you refrain from gossiping, swearing, and drinking and you feel quite proud of yourself and all the while you have neglected the greater command that you have not seen as a temptation.

The Bible it up nicely here in Luke Chapter 10:
25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' "
28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Just who is my neighbor (hint: read the rest of Luke 10)? And what is the temptation that I am referring to that I have to be careful of? One of the easiest things to do when you are with a group of friends is to exclude others. To not show them the love that you so easily show to your friends. So my challenge when I return for my 25th reunion is to not exclude anyone and to show the love of God to all that I meet as equally as I can. This will be far more difficult than refraining from the "obvious" sins.

How about you? Did you see anyone at church recently that you did not know already? Did you make the effort to make them feel welcome? Or did they leave wondering why they bothered to make the effort? My challenge to you is to seek out those that don't already belong more frequently and to make them feel welcome. It is not really that difficult. You can start like this: Hi, my name is _________. I am happy you joined us tonight. Let me know if I can do anything to make your visit more enjoyable.

We are great at hugging our friends, but how about our neighbors?