I Challenge You

I declare this "Love Your Neighbor Day" ! Or better yet, "Love Your Enemy Day"! Hey, can I do that? Well, at least on Hs.com's calendar I can.  I want to share something with you that happend just a few weeks ago right here in my neighbor hood as a matter-of-fact, that  involves two men, a stereo and a rake.  Sounds like a movie doesn't it?

My friend hopped into his car and was demonstrating the supersonic abilities of his stereoand,well,the neighbor didn't appreciate those wonderful abilities as much as we did. He even expressed  his dislike quite succinctly to my friend.  Well, to make a long story short, I'm sure my friend would have loved to have taken.the neighbor's rake and crack him one and I'm sure the neighbor would have loved to take that rake and crack that stereo but guess what? They spared us all the drama and instead resorted to a good old-fashioned word match, you know, like a game-show gone bad of sorts.  Within hours I witnessed both men handwrite apologies on store bought cards sincerely repenting of their behavior.  I read a story that day, a story about  the human race mixed with emotion and free will.  What did I learn?  That we are all capable of a whole lot of bad and a whole lot of good and that we all have the tendency to fluctuate between them both quite skillfully!

What will you do with an angry neighbor today? Or what if you are the one annoying that neighbor?  Will you admit your wrong and move on or will you allow pride and prejudice to dictate your actions?  Will you stop and think about the situation or will you use words or worse - fists - to hammer down your opponent?  I like to think about how God "hammers" His opponents. He uses an interesting method you know, it involves a wash basin, water, a towel and 12 filthy calloused feet that belong to 12 immature and selfish men, one of which who is calculating God's murder.  Is that the kind of God you could admire?  We sure can!