I’m somewhat haunted by the words in the middle of the message outline from last week: AWARENESS REQUIRES ACTION. In the moment we’re aware of an earthquake we act as we’ve been taught. We crawl under a desk (mine happens to be made of large pane of glass, however) and cover our necks and wait until we’re certain the shaking has subsided. But, the point of Doug Fields’ message this past weekend was about an awareness of our neighbors. Specifically, it was about an awareness of the neighbors that live within our own home. To an even greater degree, the awareness to which we were being called wasn’t merely to identify the people who are our neighbors within our homes. Rather, it was about loving them according to the definition given to us in Jesus:

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” (1 John 3:16)

Why is it that the people I’m called to love with the greatest and most sacrificial love are the ones who often wind up getting only my leftovers? Amanda and I had a weighty conversation about the way we love our kids–about how we manage to treat them in a less-than-neighborly way from time-to-time. We talked about our own desire to love each other more intentionally. But, beyond all the conversation, hangs those words:

AWARENESS REQUIRES ACTION.

What will you do, specifically, to love, with greater sacrifice, the neighbors in your own home? This week we’ll continue in our NEIGHBORGOOD series and we’ll look at the quintessential neighbor story in the Bible.

See you this Sunday,
Jeff

NOTE: If you’re looking for the best way to get connected in the Mariners community, ROOTED is your best bet. This weekend is the final weekend to sign up for the Fall session of ROOTED.