Help Needed: Next Door
Richard VanCleave
20217 17th Ave Ct E
Spanaway, WA 98387
It seems that not a month passes without yet another story of what has become the not-so-Good Samaritan.
Earlier this year, internet news sites were awash with a video surveillance recording of a busy road in Hartford, CT. On the recording, a 78 year-old man is seen being run over by two cars. Seconds later, a van and some other vehicles navigate around his motionless body as if he were a mere object dropped inconsiderately onto the roadway. Several pedestrians on a nearby sidewalk appear to briefly notice the paralyzed man, then walk away as if he were “not their problem”.
Thankfully, most of us will never be in a situation where we are called upon to respond to a hit-and-run accident. Yet the world around us if filled with unmet needs. Is your neighbor in need? How would you know if they were? It is often the non-crises…the situations which don’t appear urgent that are hardest to respond to.
Take a look around your neighborhood and you’ll see a world in need of generosity. That’s what we did when we learned our neighbor’s husband was leaving for Iraq. He’d be gone for at least nine months, leaving behind a young wife and a one-year-old son.
One day, while mowing the lawn, I noticed our neighbor’s grass was even more overgrown than ours. I asked her if she would mind if I mowed her lawn as well. She agreed, half-heartedly at first, but later brought her toddler out to (excitedly) watch me mow her lawn.
Later, we invited her over for a barbeque and, on another occasion, smores in our backyard fire-pit. We had a great time and learned a lot about our neighbor. First, she proved a better wet-wood fire starter than me. We also learned, through hints she dropped like, “Invite us over any time”, that she was very lonely, spending many days without leaving the house.
As the months go on we will continue to show generosity and hopefully be able to lead our neighbor, a lifetime member of the LDS church, to the Lord. We hope to show her, through our actions and words, who Christ really is. Our interaction with our neighbor isn’t about who can out-give the other. It is about showing a hurting neighbor God’s love.
How would I react if I were one of the witnesses to the hit-and-run incident? I would like to think that I would have reacted differently. I may never find out.
Closer to home, I am surrounded by people who need help, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual. Will I respond or will I cross by on the other side of the street? Helping out our neighbors won’t get us our “fifteen minutes of fame” on the evening news. But it will give us a shot at making a difference in someone’s life that will last an eternity.