Be a Neighbor

Let me share some of the stories I have heard or seen about neighbors helping neighbors.

• I have a friend in Massachusetts who works many long hours a week. Her job requires her to drive to different patients houses to provide support on a daily basis. Her car is very important to her continued employment and therefore financial stability. Last year her car DIED out of the blue. She and her family did not have the money to fix it as it was a very big breakdown and nothing minor. She was in a panic. Within a few days her next door neighbor, who they actually barely speak with, found out what was going on. This neighbor has a vehicle that they were no longer using and they GAVE it to her. It was just the miracle she needed.
• I live in a campground where many of us are hanging on to our lives by our fingernails. Often many of us have little or no food in our houses. The neighbors here have been known to leave anonymous groceries on people’s doorsteps. As well, the neighbors here often, once or twice a week, ban together and create a large meal that feeds basically everyone in the campground, whether they can contribute or not. It’s pretty amazing to see.
• I currently have no running vehicle. It’s been broke down for six months. I have a neighbor who has been so kind as to let me use his vehicle when I need to go get groceries or medicines. I have other neighbors who have given me rides when that vehicle wasn’t available. And now that my life has really gotten twisted and emergency life stuff mandates that I NEED my van running, another neighbor from down the road paid for our car parts on their credit card so that we could get it running.
• One day a girl here in our park was having a complete nervous breakdown. She was hysterically crying and talking about wishing she were dead. One of the neighbors here wanted badly to ease her pain but there was no way to do it, so he simply listened and then found some cute ways to make her laugh. Again these were to neighbors that honestly seldom see each other or have a lot to do with each other but it was out of kindness and caring that he did this.
• And then there is this one wonderful “Angel” in the area I live. This is the only story of a person who I see that “has” giving from his heart and truly caring about someone who does not “have” right now. He doesn’t give because he has to or because he feels obligated. He doesn’t make this family he gives to feel like it’s charity. He truly is an “Angel”. This man doesn’t even really know this family who he gives to but he shows up randomly once or twice a month at their door with an envelope and a warm handshake and a smile. He gives them the envelope, which contains various amounts of cash to help this family out, and then drives away.

In my first 4 stories all these neighbors were people who are of about the same income level or level of struggle at the moment. Only in my 5th story is the neighbor one of means. It’s sad that those of us who have had and now have not can feel neighborly toward others in our situation but that those who could really help have forgotten what the word “neighbor” really means and how to be one.

Have you been a neighbor in your world? What can you do to be more neighborly? Do you even think about these things or are you too wrapped up in your own little world?

I challenge all who read this to try and be a true neighbor within their community. I challenge you to be a light, be an angel, be a shoulder, but BE a part of your community and show others how to do so as well. I promise that it is rewarding and worth it.