The Art of Neighboring: Taking Time To Love

     When our kids were young we loved to watch VeggieTales.  These animated vegetables told Biblical stories in such wonderful ways.  The first episode I ever watched was titled “Are You My Neighbor?”  It was a retelling of the parable of the Good Samaritan.  One of the songs we sung often at our house was sung by the Mayor of Flibber-o-loo and the Doctor of Flibbian as they saw the poor soul who had been beaten and left alone   alongside the road.  The words of the song are “We're busy, busy, dreadfully busy! You've no idea what we have to do. Busy, busy, shockingly busy!   Much, much too busy for you! 'Cause we're busy, busy, dreadfully busy! More than a bumble bee more than an ant! Busy, busy, horribly busy! We'd love to help, but we can't!”     We sang the song around our household in jest, but in reality, it rings true in my own life today.  I’m simply too busy to help others, to be a good   neighbor to others.  I mean I have Twitter and Facebook to check, Netflix and Hulu to watch.  I have my own life to take care of.  I certainly don’t have time to get to know my neighbors.     But our struggle with busyness isn’t new.  It’s something that has plagued humanity since the beginning.  Even Jesus was tempted by being too busy, but He always chose relationships over busyness.  Time and again He stopped and ministered to those in need, even when He was in a hurry.    In this message we will be examining some practical ways we can make time for loving our neighbors.  We will look at reprioritizing our time, our motivation for loving our neighbors, and how to shift from viewing  our neighbors as bothersome annoyances to viewing them as children of God.  Pastor Lesly