Who is My Neighbor?

 I guess I am confused.

We as followers of Jesus are told to love our neighbor as we love yourself, yet I do not see that in action including my own guilty self.

Who is our neighbor?

In the story of The Good Samaritan....this exchange is made with Jesus.

He knows he must follow the Jewish law – love your neighbor as yourself – and so he asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” ... When Jesus asks which of these three – the priest, the Levite, or the Samaritan – acted as a neighbor to the robbed man, the lawyer answers “The one who showed him mercy.”

The one who showed him mercy was the Samaritan. Samaritans were often looked down upon by the Jews in Israel so Jesus using a Samaritan as the "good" guy in this story, it hits home hard to those listening

So who is our neighbor?

It's literally your neighbor and it's every single person on the planet.

From women, to men, to LGBTQ people, to foreigners (both legal and illegal), to people of other religions, to the good, to the evil, to those serving in prisons...it's quite literally every single person on this planet. Blacks, whites, Natives, atheists, Communists...I could go on and on describing people, but I would hope that everyone would be sufficient for us to understand.

Yet, we are divided unless something major happens in which we unite (think 9/11 or a tornado ravaging an area, or a hurricane). Why does it take that?

But I am like you, too. 

At what point is too much?

I mean, if we let everyone into this country, eventually it will ruin the lifestyle that we have including those who are coming in.

If we love even those who wish to over throw our country and change it in the likeness of somewhere else, we could very well lose the freedom to love everyone, to help others.

Where does righteous anger and action come into play where we are not violating our faith while still protecting it and our lives?

I don't know the answer to that question.

I do know that my own personal feelings will not change the way I treat people. In fact, I am more inclined to be short, rude, and angry with those closest to me like family and friends than I am to the...well, the Samaritan.

And I am willing to be that how I treat others will not change my country very much before I die...I dunno. 

But I do know it's a battle that wages within my heart and I hope that when I fail or am wrong it's because I am loving too much. 

And that my actions turn the eyes and focus on Jesus and not away from Him.

I'm Climbing

Look, I cannot begin to understand what kind of psychological trauma each person is going through. For some, it's obvious, we can see it, for others they do a great job of burying it so they can hide. But I'd be willing to guess everyone is going through something, something that could be very hard. I guess, I can only guess because I do both. I often make it obvious, too often with my own family, but I also bury it deep down inside to try and put on a good front for "the world".

I know the deep dark secrets of my life and the less than perfectly glamorous family life we lead and then see the pictures of me online with the smile, that my students look to me for help and I am wandering more aimless than they are most times. I see the fraud I am through the eyes of people who look to me for help. Worse yet, I see the fraud I am through their eyes and what my own children see too often.

I've been struggling lately. My mother in law and sister in law have dealt with health issues, my wife is being strong for them and I am hoping I am helping. My son is a 13 year old boy who I can be too rough on and my daughter is dealing with the pressures of life. And because I cannot control everything for them, I get too frustrated, too angry, and to...uh...unhelpful in trying to teach life lessons. I've often said that we will all screw up our children, I just hope I don't screw mine up too much.

Life is hard, life is not perfect...I am not perfect and I fail too often. I am looked up to with the eyes of people who think I have it together and I am too often floundering either not living up to someone I love's expectations or even to my own minimum expectations. I then enter the valley of depression because of it and as I start to work my way out of how I feel that I've let others down, I climb to the top of feeling good about what I'm doing and then I cannot control myself as someone shoves me off the cliff to fall flat into the depths of helplessness.

I wonder what others do who invest their whole lives in themselves. They choose not to believe in anything higher than themselves because when I am at my worst is when I really remember that my hope doesn't come from me, or my behavior, or anything or anyone in this world....it comes from God.

So where am I now? I am climbing trying to be a good husband and father, both I would give failing grades recently to my behavior. My self-awareness in this pains me in how far I can fall and how bad I can be as a dad. It weighs on me heavily and affects most everything about my life including my health. So I write this to get it off my chest