Sacrifice?

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My wife and I were intimidated when our new neighbors moved into the apartment below us about four months ago. The new tenants, who were between 25-35 years old, were drinkers and smokers with tattoos of skulls all over their bodies (very opposite of us Mayberry types). The thing that was key about this is that my wife and I know that God doesn’t look at the outside but the heart, and we know how much God saved us from, so what we learned is that it was going to take a lot of dying to ourselves in order to want to care for these guys and spend time with them.
 
Nearly everyday I have been able to spend time with these guys, whether it is for an hour or just a couple of minutes. We continue to get to know each other and just hang out and through our time spent together we have become pretty good friends. The time we have gotten with them, however, has not come without a cost. We have several friends that we love, but at times we have had to sacrifice our time with them to be a part of the lives in our apartment.
 
What is awesome is that last night God allowed me to see the fruit from spending time and caring for these guys for the last four months. He had no clue why my wife and I loved him, but I was able to explain the Gospel, and to put my arm around a broken and crying man, and share about why we care for him and how we were first loved and cared for by God. 
 
I am so thankful for this experience! From my time with these guys, it has become easy to ask, is caring for the lost really sacrifice? Is giving up time with good friends really a bad thing? How can our compassion for Jesus ever truly result in true sacrifice when the reward of simply loving Him is so great?
 
Anonymous – East Side

Being Unproductively Available in Your Neighborhood

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To be more available in our neighborhoods sometimes it means making choices that seem unproductive. It’s amazing how busy our lives are. Especially when we are a part of a large church where there are always opportunities to get together with people or participate in activities. Not to mention all of our day-to-day responsibilities. These things are not bad in and of themselves but over the last few months I have noticed that busyness makes us less available in our neighborhood.

My wife and I are learning to make adjustments to our schedule to be available to our neighbors. The other day we were getting ready to go grocery shopping. As we opened the garage we noticed our neighbors outside playing with their children. This was a great opportunity for us to connect with them so we chose to postpone our trip to the grocery store.

On the surface this might not be a big deal but it was a difficult decision because it forced us to change our schedule. It was inconvenient and seemed insignificant at that time to ‘hang out’ with my neighbor. In some ways we were unproductive because we didn’t get the grocery shopping done. My wife and I were challenged to sacrifice our schedule and preference in order to be available to
our neighbors.

Being purposefully available in our neighborhood is not easy because it means we are making conscious choices to put ourselves in places where we are available even when it is inconvenient for us. Even when it seems like nothing gets “accomplished”.

Every neighborhood is different and has unique challenges. What are some decisions we can all make in our neighborhoods to be more accessible to those God has called us to love?

by: Pastor Matt Swaney