We’re called to love our neighbors. But that isn’t always easy. What if we don’t know our neighbors, or we’re not sure how to start? Who are our neighbors, and how do we love well? (in)courage exists as an online community committed to making safe spaces for women to connect over topics just like this one. Every Wednesday this month we’ll be sharing some of our stories about discovering how to love our neighbors. We hope you’ll read along and then join us in a weekly Community Challenge geared toward discovering who God is calling us to love and some practical steps we can do together.
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I turned the corner of the dairy aisle and there he stood.
With his work shirt un-tucked, skewed ponytail strung down his back and shoulders slouched over the milk cases, his body language screamed, “Don’t mess with me.”
Everything in me wanted to avoid him as well.
I peeked at his nametag, “Hey, Mike, they told me I’d find you here. I’m the mark down milk lady that Jim told you about before he transferred stores.”
“Yep,” he grunted.
“I really appreciate you doing this. With five kids and my husband unemployed, discounting this short dated milk has been such a blessing. Thanks for continuing it.”
“Sure,” he eyed the kids with a mixture of curiosity and disdain as he retrieved the jugs.
That was our first, uncomfortable encounter with “Mr. Mike,” our neighborhood grocery guy.
My kids weren’t sure what to do with his monosyllabic sentences, and after our 2nd, 3rd and 4th encounter, they wondered if they’d done something wrong. I wondered if I should shield them from him.
“He’s just like Eeyore, Mom. He’s always complaining, and his day is always bad. He’s an empty, empty man.”
“Then we need to show him Jesus’ love, right guys?”
Slowly, Mike’s story started to unfold, and ours was an unlikely friendship. A mom of five and a twenty-something guy, alone and mad at the world, a young man who scoffed at my insistence that he was valuable and made in God’s image.
His ache carried far beyond what I could imagine, yet slowly, month by month, with kids in tow, our weekly dairy aisle visits become God-appointed conversations.
In response to simple probing questions, he started unloading his soul and pouring out his hurt. Granted permission to share his story, he responded.
He shared transparently. I shared Jesus. He shared sin. I shared salvation. He shared depression. I shared the only true and living solution. He shared loneliness, eventually, we shared friendship.
Our kids heard too much over the course of that three-year friendship, yet I never regret doing “church” in the middle of that neighborhood grocery aisle. We gave him birthday and Christmas gift cards to thank him for his service. We invited him to church and to our home for dinner, but his response was always “another time.” I made him promise.
One of Jesus’ toughest commandments is to love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31). It’s easy to quote, but I look for its evidence in the church and find it waning.
We are called to love the unlovable. Not just love them, but love them well.
We all have the need to be loved, so that soft whisper rallies. “What about me?”
Can we be honest? Often our desire is to give and receive love, but by the pretty, the popular, the loveable. That’s cheap love. Easy love. A cleaned up, less messy version of authentically loving our neighbor. Doesn’t being available for solely the lovely contradict Matthew 5:45-47?
“If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?”
Mike’s friendship taught me about loving the unlovable. He helped me rip down preconceived notions and see through my own self-centeredness. I can be selfish about my availability, but to love as Jesus is to give without expecting anything in return and that can be a lonely place. A place most don’t want to go — a place beside the broken.
My heart grieves that there’s no happy ending to my story. Couldn’t my friendship have pierced his heart so that he named Jesus as Lord and then testified of God’s goodness?
A store co-worker tracked me down on Facebook, “Mike died yesterday. He missed work, and they found him dead at home. They don’t think it was suicide, but he drank himself to death. We thought you’d want to know since you two were close.”
I could barely breathe. I should have made him come for dinner. I should have insisted he come to church.
I should have done more!
Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve.
I stopped shopping at that store for awhile. The guilt of the “what ifs” were too much. Eventually the Lord released me. This wasn’t about me. Mike and I bonded over milk, but my family loved our neighbor for years in the midst of Cookie Dough Ice Cream and Strawberry Yogurt. We couldn’t have been more different, yet for me, that’s where it needed to begin.
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This week, can I challenge our community to join hands and seek out our own “Mr. Miss Mike?”
She probably crosses our path frequently and yearns for someone to notice her. Her heart aches just like yours and waits for that one person to simply care — to be available.
Let’s pray for the Holy Spirit’s intervention as we search out the unlovable in our neighborhood. I pray that our heart expands with empathy and compassion as we pour in, even when we feel as if our own cistern is dry. He will fill it.
Who is that one person you’ll reach out to this week? Can you share with us?
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Catch the rest of the series — The Courage to Love Our Neighbors — here:
Bev @ Walking Well With God says
Jen,
After reading your post and uttering a short prayer, God brought to mind my “Miss Mike”. Right away I pleaded, “Oh no, not her…anyone but her!!” The person I’m talking about is my ex-mother in law. The woman who sat silent while her son was verbally and emotionally abusive, abandoned his family, cheated on his wife…in my place, she welcomed mistresses (out with the old – in with the new I guess). No surprise that she is a bitter and lonely old woman. In my heart I have forgiven her, but I have avoided any form of contact. This is going to be a really hard one. I don’t know what God is calling me to do, but I realize that in His eyes even she is special and loved. This is going to take some real prayer, but thank you for not letting me skim over the unlovable in my life. It is so easy to love those who love us, but we are called to so much more. Pray for me please…
Blessings,
Bev
Jen @beautyandbedlam says
oh precious Bev – I will be praying for you this week as you pray through how the Lord would be have you reach out to her. That is truly loving the unlovable and while I don’t know what that means for you, but in His timing, He will reveal that and I pray for your courage to see it through to fruition.
Jeannie says
Bev, in Mark 3, Jesus is misunderstood by his family, so He supremely understands your situation. He wants your obedience, then He’ll do the rest. Will be praying for your strength and peace during this time. Gentle Hugs…
Karmen says
Wow. This is riveting. I am so sorry about Mike! I recently had my own encounter and that same scripture came to mind. Thank you for being the love of Christ!
jen @beautyandbedlam says
Thank you for your sweet words, Karmen
Crystal says
Jennifer, I am moved by your story of hard love and convicted to open my heart to such chiseling. What a seed you planted into the hearts of your children for God to water through the years!!
jen @beautyandbedlam says
Cindy – I can’t imagine reaching out to someone who has treated me in such a way but that’s why this kind of love is truly of Jesus. I pray that you can figure out the best way to meet Anne right where she’s at.
Kat says
Your message truly speaks to me, and I’m a firm believer in reaching out to those in need. Lately, I have reached out to a certain friend who appears always to have some problem (drama) in her life. She is now going through a divorce, and I have reached out to her by giving her money and other things at various times when she has asked or needed. My problem is that I see a pattern of her constant need, and it drains me. I spoke with a mutual friend of ours who has known her for 20 yrs and she confirmed my feelings of being used. I want to love the unloveable, but I don’t know how to do that to someone who keeps taking all the time. I pray that God can help me know how to love others as he does, without allowing myself to be used.
Jen @beautyandbedlam says
Kat – I have had people like that in my life too and sometimes trying to find that balance can be a tricky place, most definitely. I don’t have an easy answer for that. I know he wants us to love and keep loving,, but doing so without enabling is definitely something we need his wisdom for. I’ll be praying for you in that regards, Kat.
Jenny R. says
This was AWESOME!!!! Our great COMMISSION! Thank you and God bless you!
lhamer says
Awww, what a sad, sweet story. Yet it is a story of hope and love and encouragement to do more for our neighbors.
Susan G. says
I really feel you did what God asked of you. Now I am wondering if I would have done half of
what you did…
Thank you for putting this before us. I will keep my eyes open…
Beth Williams says
I will be praying for you Bev. It will be hard to crack open the door and show love. Who knows what a phone call or card would mean to her now. With God ALL things are possible!
Prayers for you and blessings!!
Beth Williams says
Jennifer,
Bless you for reaching out to Mike. Something you said or did might make an impact on your children in the future. Perhaps they can reach out to people like you did. Prayers for Mike and his family.
Kat says
Thank you so much Jennifer I really needed to hear this!!!! God Bless!!
KimH says
I love this post today.. It sort of parallels an event in my life this week. The unlovable Mike and loving them anyways.. I started a new job this week.. its an important job and a very good one. I want to make sure that I make it past the 120 probationary period and dont want to do anything that would call me into question. However.. a guy my hubs is friends with who has been to the house often and we’ve done a few things socially occasionally works there as well. He has a way of being loud & obnoxious and I usually stay busy when hes around. He told me before I ever got hired on to act like I dont know him cuz everyone hates him.. and I believe it. Though he has calmed down thru the years, he has made a lot of people really angry with him. He & I had a blowout a few years ago but we got thru it and we’re ok these days. Anyways.. I ran into him twice in the halls this first week.. once I was alone but today I was with a gal who is training me.. and when he went around the corner, she started talking about him.. she DEFINITELY doesnt like him.. she used the word hate that guy.. All three of us kind of did a double take at each other & it was quite awkward.. she not knowing I knew him.. I laughed when she was done and told her that she didnt need to tell me anything about him because I knew him . I just couldnt be a Judas.. I told her that he wasnt really a bad guy, he has a good heart, he just needed to keep his mouth shut.. which is the truth.. it just gets him in deep trouble & often.. but in the end.. my heart just hurt for him.. He wanted to say hi cuz we’re friends but he didnt want to turn her against me so he tried to act like he didnt know me.. I just couldnt deny my friendship with the undesirable.. sigh..
Sue says
Wow! Thank you for sharing this. God has always put people in my path who are “Mikes”. The outcome hasn’t always been fantastic but I have been so blessed. I am between “Mikes” right now but I’m open to whoever God sends.