Precisely HOW Do We Love Our Neighbor?

YAY! I'm recovering!

This weekend I experienced one of the worse intestinal viruses I’ve had in decades. It knocked me down. Big time. Interestingly, today, just 12 hours later, I feel pretty good. May be not all the way good, but certainly I’m sooooo much better. Thank-you God!

As I slowly made my way around the block walking Jack the dog a little while ago, I got to thinking about how I might have managed that horrible virus had I been homeless. Where would I have found a toilet every 15 minutes and clean toilet paper and a sink in which to wash up? Where would I have lain down in between trips to the restroom, had I been lucky enough to have been near a restroom? How would I have hydrated myself? As it was for me yesterday, I had a friend who stayed near in the event my situation went south. Someone who made sure I was hydrated and my pets were cared for. Plus my adult children live nearby so there was emergency care should I have required it.

But how would I have managed had I been physically disabled? Or an elderly person living alone; or a child left to fend for herself. The questions are so many I can’t even wrap my head around them. 

Off the top of my head, two important points come up for me. The first is profound gratitude that I had the support that I needed and 12 hours later I have regained much of my strength. My body has the strength and capability to engage and win the fight against internal viruses ~ for this I am grateful. Thank-you, God! I am grateful for family who will step in to support me as needed. I am grateful (seriously) that the mind intellectually knows that the experience was very painful but it does not have the ability to feel that pain again! Unless I get sick again. Thank-you, God!

The other point that I want to share is that one of my major reasons for being here is to figure out how to love my neighbor as Jesus taught us. I’m not going to take up a bunch of space here ranting about all the marginalized or disenfranchised individuals that fall between the cracks every moment of every day ~ at least I’m not going to do that now. But I am going to ask you, my readers, to just think about it for a minute. Think about the tiny examples I shared that many groups would have a difficult time managing through if they had a severe stomach virus.

How can we love them? How can we support them? How do we help the helpless? What can we actually do? How would we even know if a homeless individual was sick? How can we open up to those around us? How can we grasp the courage needed to act? 

What is the first step ~ or the second?

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