Dear Neighbor –

It’s me…the lady that lives in the grey house up the hill.  I’ve waved as you walked your Golden Retriever. I’ve watched your son cross the street on his scooter.  I’ve bought cookies from your Girl Scout.

But I don’t know you.  I mean, not really. I don’t know you or your family members by name.  I know your house from its curb appeal alone, but I’ve never been inside.  

I regret this.  Oh, I’ve aspired to knock on your door and introduce myself.  I’ve pondered how fun a block party would be and thought ever-so-briefly of planning one.  But in general, I stay pretty caught up in the day-to-day tornado of my own life. 

But today is different.  The Coronavirus has thrown a monkey wrench into the machine of life, wiping my schedule clean.  In an instant I went from chuckling at the hype to stocking up on toilet paper and working from home.  So, as I look out my window, I’m thinking of you. 

Covid 19 has knocked our world totally off kilter.  It’s scary and uncertain, and we all seem to be battening down the hatches to weather this storm that’s having unprecedented impact on our health care, economy and daily lives. I’m weary from analysis and from the ominous sense of foreboding. But I can’t help but wonder what good this storm might bring in its wake. 

I hope that the flipside of this upside-down-ness might be an opportunity for deeper conversations and connection. Might it help catapult us over the pleasantries of small talk and awkward segues into real life issues?

Dear Neighbor, can we really talk?

Dear Neighbor, I care about you.  

As cornball or insincere as it might sound, I care about you, your family, and what you hold most dear. You matter; both because of our shared existence and our shared street address.  But more than that, you matter to me because you matter to the Lord, whose image you bear.  And Jesus tells us that loving you as my neighbor is nearly as important as loving Him. 

Dear Neighbor, can we talk about Faith?

Can we lay aside the “religion and politics” rules, just for today? Ok…maybe let’s still keep politics off the table, but can we please talk about faith?  

These are desperate times – and I think they warrant real dialogue about deeper things.  I want to hear about your faith — your beliefs, your values. And because I care, I want to share too…not so much the “what” of my faith, but the “Who.” 

As a college senior, at a time when I’d pretty much put my Catholic upbringing on the closet shelf, with the other trappings of my childhood, Jesus infiltrated my world. I’d believed in a benevolent God but He had little bearing on my life. I’d pull out my bible when I needed “inspiration,” but I considered it irrelevant, archaic history and lovely, but dusty poetry. 

When I encountered Jesus, my notions of “religion” and a far-off, detached God were challenged by the idea of a real, living Person. Honestly, when I heard He was more than the impersonal, remote God of “mankind,” it seemed too good to be true.  But I prayed and took Him up on His offer of relationship.  I asked Him to forgive my rebellion, come into my life and take the reins. 

This month marks 30 years since I was, as author Brennan Manning describes “seized by the power of a great affection.” I am consistently surprised by the Lord who, also according to Manning, loves me “just as I am and not as I should be, because I will never be as I should be.” He is with me always, as close as my very breath. In fearful times like these, He tells me not to be afraid, that He holds me in His hand. And when I feel all hope is gone, He himself is my hope.   

Since then, I’ve seen His power with my own eyes. I’ve seen miracles — dramatic ones, like my friends’ little girl who was healed of a degenerative disease, leaving medical professionals aghast. Or like my precious co-worker, who was once pronounced “dead” after a heart attack but is still very much alive, and sits at the desk next to mine. And I’ve seen some that aren’t as “flashy” but are still extraordinary, like restored relationships, broken addictions, and peace in turmoil, like our current pandemic, that just doesn’t make sense.  And in those times when my world feels wrecked and shattered, He is there, holding me together. In moments of searing pain, I can breathe deep of His Here-ness and have hope for better things, even when I can’t see them.   

But don’t take my word for it – check Him out for yourself.  He is worth your full consideration. Counter-cultural from day one, Jesus touched (literally) the untouchable.  He honored women when it was culturally taboo. He wasn’t impressed by status or wealth. He ticked off the religious set, preferring to hang with the down-to-earth crowd.  He calmed storms, healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the poor, laughed with friends, and wept at a graveside.  He gathered children into His arms and the disenfranchised into His fold.  Then, in utter silence, He suffered atrocity He didn’t deserve and endured brutality without retaliation. 

And amazingly, even though He knew that we would betray and reject Him, love of you and I propelled Him, bloodied and marred, to death on a Roman cross. After 3 days in a grave, He inhaled brand-new life into His human lungs and walked out of the tomb, with our very rescue from death and evil.  

Dear Neighbor, can we consider our mortality? 

This Coronavirus?  Watching the stats, considering its impact — It’s pretty unnerving stuff. In the end, will it really be as catastrophic as everyone predicts? Could our lives or the lives of our loved ones actually be threatened? And if we are talking about life and death, could we please talk life after death as well? I hope so.

Because, Neighbor, you have been crafted for eternity.  You are a blue-jean-wearing, coffee-drinking miracle. The complexities of your engineering can only point to a brilliant Engineer, who fashioned you for forever.  But our humanity is 100% fatal.  As cliche’ as it may sound, Heaven and Hell are actual, real places, the former obviously vastly preferred. After you’ve breathed your last breath on earth, you will indeed live on. It’s just a questions of where.

And Heaven isn’t something we can earn by our work ethic or elbow grease. The Lord won’t be reviewing our accolades or our resumes.  There won’t be an entrance exam graded on a curve, comparing us with a bank robber. The Lord won’t apply some behavioral equation, adding up our “good” stuff and subtracting the “bad.”  We won’t be able to scoot by, having been basically a “good person.”  No, the Lord’s rubric for heaven-entrance, outlined in the bible, shows that our response to Him and His Son will determine our eventual destination.

Dear Neighbor, please don’t gamble.

I don’t know if you are the gambling sort or not. But when we are talking about eternity, these stakes are pretty high. In these unsettling times, please take your own good, long look at Jesus.  Or let’s look at Him together.

CS Lewis said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

Hell will most definitely be, well, hell-ish and the thought of you there is more than I can bear.

Why not take some of this extra time in isolation to investigate? Read for yourself what Jesus says rather than relying on someone else’s estimations of Him. Don’t be seduced into thinking you are too intelligent or too sophisticated. Keep an open mind.  If you ask Him to reveal Himself, He will.  

And another thing:  don’t let the blunders of God’s people obscure your view of the Lord Himself. Sadly, the odds are high that you have been offended or hurt by God’s Church, of which I am a member and possible offender.  I recognize and lament that my tendencies toward self-centeredness and judgment might have caused Christ to be misaligned and defamed.  But, the actions of fallible people need not construct a roadblock in your path to an Infallible God. As His Church, we strive to be to the world His hands and feet, admitting that at times they are blemished and crippled. Yet, still we try.

Dear Neighbor, speaking of the hands and feet of Jesus…

I’d like to be that to you. I am hopeful that these distressing times can bring a renewed sense of solidarity to our world, starting with our own little neighborhood. Even though we have to keep our acceptable social distance, might I pray for you, for specific needs?  Could I pick up groceries or prescriptions? Might I share my cleaning supplies, my toilet paper and ultimately my life?

I sense an urgency to talk about these things that really matter!  And I’ve only scratched the surface here, but would love the chance to read a book together or examine scripture with you.

Could we each pour ourselves a cup of coffee, settle into our favorite shelter-in-place chair, dial the phone and start this dialogue, virtually now but eventually face-to-face?   

Can we take advantage of the door that Covid 19 has opened for us to have conversations with eternal consequences? 

I really hope so.

Love, 

Your Neighbor