One Door Down

I got past the first front door today. My door. And I was able to connect with with my neighbor one door down.

I’ve mentioned him before and how I really feel God wants me to knock in his door.  He doesn’t come out very often and is somewhat of a shut-in because of his physical condition.  We had this huge snow storm come through over the weekend and Saturday morning we looked out and saw him shoveling his driveway.  Immediately I thought, here’s my chance.  We finished up a few things in the house, got the kids all bundled up (made sure they went to the bathroom) and headed out into the snow.  I was dissappointed to see he was gone by the time we made it out.  But chance would have it that he came back out.

The kids and I went over to find he was already done with his driveway so there was nothing for us to help him with. But we chatted for a bit while the kids threw snowballs in his driveway.  To make a long story short, I found out what time of the day would be good for me to stop by for a visit. That makes my next step to stop by.  I’ll keep you posted.

In all this something occurred to me. When it comes to loving other people, I have this theory that I’m sure is going to be tested. We can give our money. We can give up our things. We can share food. But I would wager that the hardest thing for us to give up is our time. Time means freedom. Time means choice. We can give up our money if we still get to choose what to do with our time. So in the coming year, we’ll see if my theory is correct. In order to love other people, it takes time.