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Monday, June 22 

Tom Opdyke 
 

“You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” James 2:8-9 
 

I’ve been neighbors with a lot of different people. There was the high school football coach whose house would get toilet papered when he lost a game. There was also the quintessential British sci-fi geek and the Indian Australian couple who loved to gift my roommate and me bottles of wine. And there was the Eritrean migrant who shared with me the ways of Islam as well as the old Burmese landlady who lived above me and would bang on the door at 6 a.m. demanding money for the power bill.  

I did not choose these people as neighbors. They were people God put near me, and it was up to me to love them. Sometimes, I failed. In the case of the Burmese landlady, let’s just say that I’m less than pleasant that early in the morning. Other times, I was better. The sci-fi fan and I bonded over watching Stargate SG-1, and now we always catch up when I’m back in Newcastle.  

But most of the time, I was not and am not actively trying to love the people who live around me. I’m worn out by the world. My home is my castle, and if everyone could just please leave me alone until I’m comfortable enough to come out, life would be ideal. SPOILER ALERT: God does not call us to be comfortable and rarely guides us toward people or situations with whom we’re comfortable.  

Most often, I find myself leading with defensiveness rather than love when engaging with new people. And recalibrating my attitude can take a moment. If I’m honest, it takes even longer with people who look, sound, or act differently than I do. This is because I see myself in those who look and sound like me, so loving similar people is easier. I imagine their struggles to be like my own, so giving them the benefit of the doubt comes almost without question.  

My partiality is my sin. Showing love more easily and quickly to those like me is not Christ-like. It’s an indication of a broken world that, through God, I must work to fix. And fixing it isn’t just about changing myself, it’s also about changing the world that made me this way.  

Being loving means making the time to make the effort. You can’t love someone without investing in them and seeing them as the person they are and not just whom you imagine them to be because it’s easier. If I want to be loving, I must leave my comfortable castle and find ways to get to know my neighbors. Part of loving them also means creating, maintaining, and managing the environment around us as an emotionally, spiritually, and physically safe space. Without that safety, I will continue to fail at getting to know the people I’m called to love.  

And in that space, outside my castle walls, I will hear the cries from those who have gone unloved for so long. Maybe, they’ll ask where I’ve been all this time? Perhaps, they’ll tell me that not all castles are as comfortable as mine. They might ask why my castle has no windows or openings so I could have seen their needs? Or does it have them, but I closed the blinds? What if they ask me why after years of neglect, I am choosing to love them now? And if I can’t answer them, how can I expect to explain it to God? And what if their response to my love is not questions or condemnation? What if they, too, offer love? Imagine the kingdom we could build. 
 

Prayer: God help me to love others by leaving my castle and entering your kingdom. 

 

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Meet the Author. Tom Opdyke

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