Who is my neighbor?

I will tell you a story. One night a man came to our house and told me, "There is a family with eight children. They have not eaten for days."
I took some food with me and went. When I came to that family, I saw the faces of those little children disfigured by hunger. There was no sorrow or sadness in their faces, just the deep pain of hunger. I gave rice to the mother. She divided the rice in two, and went out, carrying half the rice. When she came back, I asked her, "Where did you go?" She gave me this simple answer, "To my neighbors; they are hungry also!" I was not surprised that she gave-poor people are really very generous. I was surprised that she knew they were hungry. As a rule, when we are suffering, we are so focused on ourselves, we have no time for others. -- Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta


This story struck a chord with me when I read it! I read it and thought how often I suffer and get so stuck in me and forget the others around me.  I realized that when I am spiritually attacked  it is not only feeding me lies, but keeping me away from my brothers and sisters in the Lord.  How you may ask? Because I am so self-centered in that moment.  I am not thinking that maybe someone understands. I am thinking no one does. That is how I think Satan's ways are not only deceitful to me in that moment but also deceives everything and everyone around me as well. 
I become into me so much, Satan convinces me that no one will ever understand and then not only am I at a loss for healing, but possibly the people around me are to. Meaning they lose the opportunity to heal others and themselves.


There is healing when we can share our hearts with another.  There is healing when we share our sufferings. They say " Pain shared is half the pain and joy shared is twice the joy."  When we share, and process with those around us, who we can do so with, there is such a beautiful gift that is received...we receive God's love in a new way! A beautiful way, a way that we never thought we could.  God allows us to draw from each other so as to be closer to Him.  It is a gift.  He calls us to help each other so we can experience Him. He calls us to love each other so that we can experience His love for us.


The interesting part of it all is that it is not that easy! Love as I have mentioned in past posts is a challenge of the person to be more then they know they can even be.  So sometimes, depending on where we are at, we don't even know our own capacity level to love.  In fact, most often, we don't think about the fact that our hearts were made to love and serve the Lord.  We learn to love and serve ourselves and although there is a place for that, our Love of self, or rather our ability to take care of self, needs to lead us to greater love of neighbor!  As you can see from the short story Mother Teresa told of the woman receiving what she needed and then remembering those around her, her suffering called her to help others! She did not let her sufferings rule her, rather she allowed her sufferings to strengthen her and lead her to service and to be a gift of self to another.


That is so so hard.  I think that is why we are continually refined in our love! It has taken many years of experiences, joys, disappointments, hurt and a constant humility to refine love in my own heart.  And God continually will refine me, so that I can be led to greater love of him and my neighbor.  So who is my neighbor? I believe that we are all neighbors to each other.  Some we are called to pray for, some we are called to serve, some we are called to ask for there service for us.  Really are neighbors are not just those next to us but all those around us--those we have met and those we do not know. Those we like and those we dislike--we are all neighbors to each other.  This always causes the most problems--the being the neighbor to those i dislike--I think this is God's way of showing us what he is made of.  We have to depend on him and allow him to be the love we don't even know how to be in that moment. In these moments I always say, Lord take over! The coolest thing is, he does and he makes everything beautiful--as long as I am open to that moment. 


Learning to love in our sufferings is more then difficult.  I can say that from experience I had to walk through my pain just a bit to be able to even see pain in the others around me. Once i do walk in my pain, my capacity to love grows, my compassion is bigger, I begin to think of others in their sufferings and reach out to be to them what I have received and the more i do so the more I heal my own heart of the sufferings I endure!