Won't you be my neighbor?

Tonight Chris Sahlman took us through Mark 12 and focused on verse 31 which says to "love your neighbor as yourself."

Chris was really transparent and shared his personal experience with this verse recently. An important part of this process is learning to love ourselves. Chris felt really bad about an experience he had at work and decided to make up for it by putting all his energy into making work #1. The problem was that it wasn't for Jesus, it was just because he felt really bad. He felt like he wasted a lot of time by trying to get his self-worth from work rather than from God.

He then asked us these questions:

Why should we love ourselves?
How can we love ourselves?

Rebecca and Kim said that one reason we should love ourselves is because God loves us.

Brandon said we should love ourselves emotionally, spiritually, physically, and mentally. Not letting our feelings rule us, getting fed spiritually, staying physically fit, and being a lifelong learner.

Chris also said we need to really take responsability for our actions. We can establish an accountability relationship with somebody but if we're not honest or consistent it won't make a difference.

So, heading in the practical direction, how can we show neighborly love in our community?

We should always be looking for needs that we could help meet in our community. Picking up trash? Helping carry groceries? Leading children's activities?

Darren brought up the fact that sometimes our idea of who our neighbor is is screwed up. In many cases our neighbor is the person that we least want to help. It challenges us to treat them like we would treat ourselves.

How will you reach out to your "neighbors" this week?