Monday, April 7, 2025
“Help A Neighbor”
Our Lenten Challenge today is to help a neighbor. Throughout this Lenten Season, we’ve encountered several Challenges focused on helping other people. This time, the focus is someone who lives close enough to be considered a neighbor.
The help we provide could be any kind of help, taking any amount of time. The only requirement is that we pay attention to our neighbors so that we are able to recognize the opportunities to help. If we don’t pay attention, we may not be able to see how we can help. So, a big part of this Challenge is simply paying attention.
The Bible is filled with strong suggestions (or even commands) to love our neighbors. The Bible is also filled with stories and examples of neighbors helping neighbors, to the extent that we are reminded that neighbors are also responsible for each other. Why? The answer is simple: neighbors are community.
We work out our lives in community. We live together, we shop together, we pay taxes together, and we shelter from storms together. Without neighbors, life can be very challenging, as all of us recognized during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let’s not take it for granted that we have neighbors around us. Find a way to help one!
“For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” (Galatians 5:14, NLT)
