Monday, February 29, 2016

the ones next door

It's shocking to see how much your prospective changes on what's important when your focus turns to cherishing every moment.

I spent the night at Hospice sleeping in my dad's room.  I rested and listened.

Dad slept well,  I didn't hear the uncomfortable sounds of the hospital - instead I heard the relief that a place more like home brings.

I also heard the ones next door.

They appear to be of a different nationality and religion.  This isn't based on a stereo-typing analysis from me, but things I've actually heard them say and things I've actually seen them do.

There are only 2 families here right now, and we're right beside one another.

Quite the contrast side by side.  Opposites.  I can't image what it must be like serving a non-existent God like this family appears to do at Hospice.

This family is not quiet about their presence.  At one point a small boy threw open dad's door, not what you're going for when you check into Hospice.  Also late in the night, there appeared to be a big disagreement right outside our door - a sharp contrast to what you usually find at here.

As I thought about all the ways we're different then they are, I also remembered the sacrifice of a Savior that was required to make us different then the lost.  Before the Savior, we were exactly like them regardless of our clothes.

It also made me think about the families I live beside at home, I don't know them.

They're just far enough away from our house that we never cross paths, and rarely see one another outside to speak.

I think it's time to be working on some kind of plan to be more intentional about their eternity.

I realize now that an error my church made when I was growing up was to use things to manipulate us or scare us into making decisions.  And one thing I remember them saying was, "some day at the great judgement seat of eternity, the people you didn't witness to will look at you and say, "Why didn't you tell me about Jesus?"....

Regardless of if that's true or not, a Savior came to die to bring salvation and out of both a deep  compassion for their souls and obedience to why we are here on earth, may we be intentional about the ones next door.

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