“Love thy neighbor”
I have heard this simple yet poignant message shared often throughout my childhood and into my young adult years. It sounds good to say. It sounds even better to say you practice the act of genuinely loving your neighbor…but what about the moments that truly test this love of a neighbor? At present, I am experiencing a very literal life-lesson.
My laptop clock says it is just past 1:00AM. I went to bed later than I likely should have given I am not feeling well. Still, I cozied under the covers around 10:00PM eager to dive into the new issue of Country Living that arrived in my mailbox today. I had specifically saved it for bedtime, thinking it was a perfect way to unwind. As I started to flip through the pages I could not help but notice the gathering going on at my neighbors’ house was still quite loud. People were hootin’ and hollarin’ and quite honestly from the sounds of it were likely just a little inebriated. I cannot know that for certain though. Given this noise had been going on since around six in the evening I was disheartened to hear it still resonating on the night air at such a late hour. Relaxing at that point was rather difficult. Drowning out the yelling posed a challenge.
After I set my magazine aside, disappointed that my downtime had been thwarted, I determined I was in desperate need of some shut eye. So, I grimaced, wandered across the house, grabbed my CD player and a mix CD I had made for nighttime then returned to my bedroom. I popped it in and grew more frustrated as it took cranking my music up louder than I would like so as to make the “classic rock” the neighbors were blasting in the distance fade away. In fact, my music was now too loud for me to sleep…but, I figured at least godly messages were entering my ears and perhaps calming down would enable me to finally find sleep.
Each time a song wound down, I listened in the silence between tracks hoping the din of the neighborhood had died down. Nope. The clock ticked on and on, while their music and voices rang out. I was growing quite agitated by the time my husband strolled into the bedroom. Of course, the first thing he did was turn off my stereo. He could not sleep with my music on he informed me. Fair enough, I mean, I couldn’t even sleep with my music on…but I could not sleep with it off either. I felt the better of the two was my music because at least I was getting a good dose of the Truth and affirmation of biblical principles. This was going a long way to helping me sort out my anger toward these inconsiderate people.
But the positive ended and I just lay there, now completely enveloped in darkness, save the glow of our small nightlight (I can’t stand pitch black), fighting the urge to scream. I ranted to my husband about the complete indecency of it all. He chided me for being bitter, which I did not appreciate. I mean, I had every right to feel the loathing for these people who were so rude as to think they are the only ones on this street at 1AM! Right?
Ok, so I knew I was in the wrong for my attitude about it, which is precisely why I did not appreciate the gentle reprimand. And yet, I was not sure exactly what to do about it all. I had been talking to God but maybe He did not want to hear “Please make them go to bed…or shut off the power…or something!” Then I went into self-pity mode “Oh, God…What did I do to deserve this?”
I stormed out of the bedroom and flipped on the lights in our living room and now I am just sitting here, thankful for the moments where our air conditioner kicks in and offers “white noise”. It is refreshing. Just like my music though, it goes silent eventually and I am left here, stewing…embittered, seething at the injustice of it all. Why should I be wide awake while they are out there completely unaware of just how rude and obnoxious they are being or if they are aware, do not seem to care about the implications of keeping their very tired neighbors who are trying to fight off the fevers that keep creeping up. Sleep. Ah, sweet sleep. The same sleep that was interrupted this morning when another neighbor thought it was the perfect time to ride up and down our street on their very loud motorcycle (or some other type of bike) a few times. Agh!
I have given you background. I acknowledge my attitude is just as obnoxious as their actions but what do I do about it? How do you love neighbors who time and again seem to have no regard for the people around them? It is proving to be more of a challenge than it ought to be but I have to remember, I want to maintain a level head. I am supposed to be a light in a world of darkness. If I am tempted to storm out the front door and confront them about the volume (and hour) of their antics, then Satan has won. He has me in a position where I could compromise my testimony.
Because I do love my neighbor, I am reminded of this fact that I need to walk the walk. I would not want to cause them to draw away from Christ because they saw someone professing the faith but not living it. That is how many people become jaded to Christianity. They get hung up on the Christians and not on Christ. It is human nature though and we must be different. Anger and malice are easy emotions to give heed to. Self-pity and wallowing are equally as easy.
Instead of letting my frustration grow into bitterness I need to be more selfless and lift these people up in prayer. Maybe they are going through hard times and a night they won’t remember is the best way they know to cope. Perhaps they are completely ignorant to the fact they are keeping this woman alert, when at 1:30PM she should be unconscious to the world. Or they could really be just as inconsiderate as I originally thought they were. Regardless of the reason behind their behavior, my response should be the same “love thy neighbor”.
Rather than wishing their power would go out, I could pray that God would show me a way to be a better neighbor myself. I stay in the house a lot. We have a lot of difficulty maintaining our grounds. If I made some effort to get out more or at least to say “Hi” or wave to my neighbors…maybe, maybe they would remember that there is a community on this little dead end street. And so that is my life lesson for now. God’s classroom never goes to recess. He is always waiting to teach us something new, if we will just sit quiet a moment and really listen, contrary to how loud it is around you…just listen.
Tonight, I heard Him whisper above it all “Love thy neighbor
" ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ ; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ "
~Luke 10:27~
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