I used to be the president of my neighborhood association. I don’t know that I have ever had a more disillusioning position. When Liz and I moved into our neighborhood, we were greeted by a smiling, bubbly woman who came bearing some kind of bready sweet thing. Later, we met the old hippie who walks the neighborhood 4-5 times a day and picks up trash. We met the retired guy who would always lend me a tool that I didn’t own yet. We started to love our neighborhood.
So when the position came open and I was nominated, I accepted even though I didn’t need yet another thing on my plate. What I found out was that there were a lot of nice people in my neighborhood, but when we all came together to make an “association” out of things, stuff went south real quick. There was a contingent that only wanted to talk about local politics and politicians. There was another group that wanted to come up with ideas that “would be great to do as a neighborhood” but that they would never volunteer to help with. There was another group that just talked about the glory days before the city plowed a road right through. Come to think of it, it sort of looked like church but without Jesus. And lemme tell you, church without Jesus is toxic.
I tried, but I failed. I was not a good neighborhood association president. Not that I ever want to do that job again, but if I were going to, I wouldn’t try to “get things done” as I did before. I think I would simply try to show how there were people who were immensely lovable in my neighborhood. That doesn’t mean they were perfect. But they are lovable. Even the guy who yells angry profanities at anyone who drives on his yard and uses his leaf blower religiously every day. Even the folks that have the signs in their yards every time any election comes calling. They are still lovable.
The SSID for my internet router is “JesusLovesYou”. I figure at least a few people will see it when they are logging onto their internet and get a good reminder. It makes me wonder what it would be like if Jesus lived in my house. Would we have great parties where He provided the wine from my garden hose? Would He sit with the man with dementia down the street? Would He mow the lawn of the neighbors who don’t seem like they have time to get to it themselves? Would He forgive the man with the noisy motorcycle who drove by just as the kids were getting to sleep?
And then I remember, oh yeah, Jesus DOES live in my house. He lives in me. He lives in my wife and my children. And guess what, He lives in you. Amazingly enough, He’s a good enough neighbor to look at us and say that we are immensely lovable. Even to the point of dying on the cross for us. And He looks around at our neighborhoods and sees people that are lovable to Him there too. He is yearning inside you to love those neighbors. Do you dare let Him? And if you did, how could it change your neighborhood?