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Messy Advice... | What Counts as Loving My Neighbour? · Neighbourly: Real Stories of Care and Community

• 0:00
  This one's for anyone who's ever mowed a neighbor's lawn and thought, was
• 0:03
  that love or just passive aggressive landscaping?
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  Let's be honest, sometimes we overthink love so much we
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  end up doing nothing at all. Someone helps their neighbors fix a fence
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  and spends the whole time wondering if they should pray out loud,
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  offer a bible verse, or just hold the level and be chill.
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  They go with the level, and honestly, it was probably
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  enough. Welcome to Messy Advice for People Who Care,
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  a summer series from Journey with Care for everyone trying
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  to figure out if being neighborly requires a casserole or
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  just eye contact. We're talking about caregiving, boundaries, burnout, and
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  the not so clear moments of loving others well, minus
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  the formulas. This is Johan on the edge of being helpful,
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  clarifying that, yes, holding the door does technically count
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  as ministry. No robe required. If you've
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  ever felt unsure about what actually counts as loving your neighbor,
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  You're not alone. Today's question puts that tension into
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  words. I wanna love my neighbors, but
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  I'm not sure what that's supposed to look like. Does it have to
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  be big and obvious, or is the small stuff enough?
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  That's such a real and freeing question, and
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  maybe the answer starts smaller than we think. According
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  to the Angus Reid Institute, thirty three percent of Canadians say
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  they rarely or never speak to their neighbors.
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  This is people you live day in and day out 10 feet away
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  from a lot of the time. So if you've waved at someone this
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  week, you're already outperforming a third of the country,
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  gold star, but still a little sad.
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  Let's be real. Most of us aren't trying to win at neighborliness.
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  We're just trying to figure out what love looks like in between groceries and
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  garbage day. Here's a thought. Loving your neighbor
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  doesn't always mean starting a nonprofit. Sometimes it
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  means not sighing audibly when they park too close to your
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  recycling bin. Now imagine this. You're walking past
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  your neighbor who's hauling groceries while wrangling a toddler. You
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  consider helping, and then you remember you don't know their name. Then
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  you panic and keep walking while overthinking it for the rest of the
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  day. Welcome to the overthinker's guide to loving your neighbor.
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  Let's have a look at some scripture. Let's get biblical.
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  Biblical. In Matthew 25, Jesus is telling
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  this powerful story about the end of days, the sheep and the goats and
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  the final judgment. And he says, I was
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  hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me
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  something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me in.
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  And then the people he's talking to go, wait. When when did we do that?
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  His answer? Whatever you did for the least of these, you
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  did for me. And here's the kicker. They didn't know they were doing
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  something holy. They weren't out there Instagramming their acts of
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  service or tracking spiritual mileage points. They were
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  just showing up with a sandwich, a blanket, or a or a bit
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  of kindness because that's what was needed. The
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  good news, you don't need to feel epic for love to
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  count. You just need to notice, respond,
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  and stay open to what you see around you. The small
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  faithful acts, the unnoticed ones,
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  those are the ones Jesus celebrates, not because they're flashy,
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  but because they're rooted in care without needing credit.
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  So, yeah, giving your neighbor a ride to pick up their kid totally
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  counts. So does offering to bring in that grocery bag
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  or checking in, smiling at someone, sharing muffins,
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  mowing lawns, and even holding that post hole digger.
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  Love doesn't need to be loud. It just needs to be present.
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  So this week instead of asking, is this enough? Maybe
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  ask, is this love? If you've been stuck in the
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  overthinking spiral of what does care actually look like, you're in
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  good company. Don't underestimate the holy power of
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  showing up quietly. And if you wanna join a group of
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  people asking these same questions and having these same wrestles,
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  join us on the Care Impact podcast group on Facebook. We would love to connect
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  with you there. And until next time, remember to keep loving,
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  keep laughing, and if holding a ladder counts as love,
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  I'm basically a saint. And always remember to
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  stay curious.