Won’t YOU be my neighbor? Please??

We can all appreciate the figurative meaning of Jesus’ parables and the “big picture” application of his commands, but sometimes it takes the literal to get my attention.

I’m on the second level of my apartment building. Directly above me on the third floor lives a family with three or four children under age 7. Most evenings, and most of the weekend, the children heave bowling balls onto the floor (aka my ceiling) and herd cattle between the bedrooms. Occasionally Louie the Wonder Cat gets a little scared and hides under the bed, and one morning I woke up to find a picture jarred off the wall.

Below me on the first floor is a woman with many Major Issues and Serious Problems. I know this because she discusses them at length on her patio, often when I’m trying to escape the Thunderdome upstairs by retreating to my balcony. She finds great solace in pouring out her miseries in long, loud cell phone calls. This would be annoying enough, but her chain-smoking makes it really special.

So I can sit outside and get lung cancer or sit inside and watch the plaster crack. Or, this time of year, I can work inside with the windows open and experience both at once.

I could talk all day long about Jesus’ teaching to love our neighbor as ourselves and the importance of serving others, but only if we mean the big world out there I don’t have to deal with. Because the irony is I am annoyed to distraction with my actual neighbors, and haven’t given much thought to serving them at all.