My Family and I have been in our house almost four months, and I’m pretty sure my neighbors think I’m Ned Flanders. If you live in a cave or something and don’t know who Flanders is, he is the Christian neighbor of Homer Simpson. Ned and I differ from each other in at least three ways that I can think of: 1. Ned can take off his sweater. 2. Ned is actually pretty ripped under his sweater (he’s got the six pack where I opted for the (pony?) keg). 3. I think Ned is a better Christian than me.
Where Ned ’s love for the Lord is as obvious as the “Kumbiyah” chiming from his doorbell, I conveniently waited until it was dark just to put out my “Wise Men still seek him” sign. Ned only got angry with his wife when he had a really good reason (like when she mistakenly underlined verses in his bible), I cannot even remember the last time I had a good reason to get angry with my wife (notice I didn’t say I cannot remember the last time I got angry with my wife). Where Ned is a goofball for the Lord, I’m just a goofball. Anyhoo, I think my neighbors know that I am a Christian and that I don’t smoke pot, so in their eyes, I am Ned Flanders.
That’s fine with me because, with the exception of my occasional Blog reader, I’m not too into trying to impress others. However, that’s not what living for Jees-diddly-esus is all about. God put love your neighbor as yourself right behind Love your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. That’s a good one God, but how???
My Pastor actually discussed this issue this past weekend. He reminded us of how Paul lived. Paul tells us how when he was with the Jews, he lived like a Jew. He ate what they ate and did what they did in their presence. However, when he was with the gentiles, he lived like the gentiles. He didn’t do this because he was ashamed of his beliefs, he did this because of his beliefs. He did it all to bring to people to Jesus. “Find something in common, and let Jesus walk over the bridge” our Pastor reminded us. So hopefully Jesus will be able to find the bridge through all of the smoke because my wife and I are going to start smoking pot to bring our neighbors to Christ. Ummm…on second thought, maybe not. I mean I’m sure it has it’s medicinal purposes, but it just isn’t our thing. There’s got to be another pray…I mean, way.
Why am I not praying for my neighbors? I mean every day I walk around my cul-de-sac with my sign that says, “Repent sinners! Or you are all going to HELL!” on one side and simply “John 3:16″ on the other. I don’t think they recognize me in my rainbow colored wig, but why do I get so caught up in my own world that I cannot see the needs of others? Today I spent five hours over six meals, making sure I wasn’t going to wither away to nothingness (at one point I went almost two hours without eating…it actually was pretty scary). Yet there are people in my own backyard going to bed hungry tonight. Question for you: what are those people doing in my backyard and does anyone know a place where I can take my dog to get him trained to even remotely resemble a guard dog?
Anyway, as my dog works on eating my rainbow wig, I can work on good old fashion love. I don’t have to slip God into every encounter I have with my neighbors. Come to think of it, I think I might be getting a little carried away lately. This past weekend my kids had some friends over for a slumber party at our house. Being the hip Dad that I am, I took them toilet papering. We picked three neighbors of ill repute, and and with TP wrote “Jesus Loves You” across their lawns. Like many of my ideas, it seemed like a good idea at the time. How was I to know that the guy in the middle house would wake up at the crack of dawn and clean up his lawn. I think if nothing else we had to at least have the rest of the neighborhood scratching their heads when they came out to “Jesus You.” To make matters worst, I couldn’t even fess up to it the next day. I had to tell everyone that I just saw a show on the Discovery channel about aliens getting bored with crop circles and now they were moving on to leaving messages with toilet paper.
Anyway, I guess I di-diddly-digress. I need to pray for my neighbors to come to know Christ. I need to be there just showing normal (not religious goofball) love. Someday they will have something happen in their lives that may make them even temporarily open to hearing about God. If I don’t screw-diddly-ew up the day to day neighbor things, they might even accept one of my invitations to Church, Bible Study, or Small Group. Heck, even Homer finds himself in the Lord’s house from time to time right? You betcha!
