Where do you hang out?

I have a friend recently say that it was hard to get to know his neighbours. The humorous part about that statement is he's been a missionary to Africa before!

Another friend was experiencing similar difficulty getting to know his neighbours until he planted squash in his front yard. Suddenly people would stop by & ask what he was doing.

We recently met some folks who have lived down the street from us. The amazing fact about that is we had never seen them before & we've been here for nearly 13 years. They knew of us because they enjoyed seeing our little dog run down the street chasing our kids!

God has sent each one of us to our neighbourhoods.

Not just to our rec rooms or places of personal comfort.

To get to know our neighbours.

So why not try hanging out in your neighbourhood?

Coach a team, join a team (not from your church but made up of your neighbours), throw a party, sit on your front step, mow a neighbours lawn, go for a walk, the list is as endless as we are creative.

Why not even try hanging out on a Sunday morning? It's a religious experience all its own.

2 Corinthians 5:14-21
The Spirit of God whets our appetite by giving us a taste of what's ahead. He puts a little of heaven in our hearts so that we'll never settle for less. That's why we live with such good cheer. You won't see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don't get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It's what we trust in but don't yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we'll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming.

...we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know...

God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them. We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.