In Luke 10 (verses 25-37) is a story I can bet we're all familiar with,it is the Parable of the Good Samaritan. In the parable we see the people we expect to do good and be kind doing the exact opposite, the priest and Levite leave the robbed man for dead. Now ,when this story was told to us in Sunday school,it was very easy for me to judge the priest and the Levite , to call them bad men, but now I'm older and I realize that I am just like them, might be even worse, and probably so are you.
The culture of the world I've grown up in is accumulation, we praise those who have accumulated money,cars,clothes and the likes. I've been programmed the same way too, growing up I always wanted to have a collection of Nike shoes and caps but now, I no longer see these things as important. I realized one day as I was on my way to a friend's house, on a route that I use very frequently, that one of the vendors who was selling water did not have a hat on. Imagine spending all day,in the searing heat without a hat. I felt sorry for the man, a man I saw regularly but still that pity was not enough for me to give him my cap. I valued accumulation,more than my fellow human. I was like the priest and the Levite, we've all been the Levite and priest at some point. We've all come across someone in need and we have placed the want that is accumulation over the need of our fellow humans.
The greatest command, the most important command Jesus gave us was to love our neighbour as we love ourself and Jesus' last words to us were to go out and spread the good news,to make disciples these two things can be combined in acts of love. We ,as Christians, are called to act on our faith as James 1:22(GNTD) reminds us, " Do not decieve yourselves by just listening to his word;instead,put it into practice " and so I urge you this week to pay attention, notice the people you come across who's lives you could make better. Secondly,pray for a heart that will allow you to put somebody else's needs,someone you pobably do not know before your wants and last but not least the action,just go for it, lend a helping hand. An act of love doesn't have to be something large and over the top , share your KFC, carry an extra bottle of water for the vendors,shopkeepers,homeless people,labourers you'll see on the street, it could be giving a shopkeeper a few extra coins or dollars to make their day. So to answer the question,that is the title,everybody you come across is your neigbor. It is through these small acts that we strengthen our faith and win over souls.Let us go out there and be good Samaritans!