Love Your Neighbor

One of the reasons I am glad to move is that I won't have to put up with the obnoxious upstairs neighbor. I began praying that our new neighbors will be quiet, thoughtful, decent law-abiding citizens who will basically either leave us alone or become friends.

The absurdity of that prayer smacked me right in the face. I am asking for lovable neighbors who will be easy to tolerate. But we are instructed to love our neighbors as ourselves. Obviously, Jesus was talking to chosen people about getting along with other chosen people. These were all basically good people. Right?

He was not talking about the guy who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day and drops all the butts down on MY porch. He was not talking about the couple that stomp around their apartments until well after midnight, yelling and screaming at each other and at their kids. He was not talking about the beer drinking, foul mouthed woman who props all the doors open because she is too lazy to stay outside and keep tabs on her unruly wildcat children - the ones who insist on climbing the railings of my porch and scaling the bushes to their own deck above, the same bratty insolent kids who trash the hallways, dump garbage on my door mat, and pick the lock to the basement and meddle where they are not supposed to be.

Love your neighbors as yourself.

You got to be kidding! They have the morals of a gnat, the manners of a pig, the. . .

But wait. There are no caveats on that verse. If God loves these people just as they are (after all, he loves me just as I am) then surely I should be more concerned about them, shouldn't I? I'm not even sure I know how to love them. Treat them as I would want to be treated? Well, that probably doesn't include yelling at their kids, slamming the doors shut every time I find them propped open, entertaining thoughts of gathering up all those burned butts and depositing them on their doorstep, pounding the ceiling with a broom when they get to cat fighting in the middle of the night. Hum. Apparently I have a lot to learn.