Love Thy Neighbor

For as long as I can remember, I've had a thing for T-shirts, especially ones with stuff on them. Over the years, I've amassed quite a collection ... shirts from places I've been, shirts people have given me, shirts with moose on them (lots of shirts with moose on them cause I love anything moosey) shirts with college logos, shirts with silly sayings and shirts with profound messages. But here's the problem ... I've lost a ton of weight over the last three years, and almost all of my T-shirts look like tents on me now. So I've spent the last three months or so being on the lookout for cool (and cheap) T-shirts, and I'm slowly but surely building a whole new, smaller-sized shirt collection. A couple of months or so ago, I saw a shirt online and instantly knew that I had to have it, and thankfully, the ministry that sells the shirts offers them for a very reasonable price so I got both the short-sleeved and long-sleeved styles. I knew the minute I saw the shirt that its message could be considered a controversial one, and quite honestly, it took a few weeks after I received them for me to muster up the courage to wear one. And every time I've worn it since, I've received a wide range of commentary from others, some positive, some negative ... hang on, I'll tell you in a bit what the shirt says.

This morning at church, the preacher started a new series called, "There's an App for That," and his text for today's sermon was James 1:22-25 ... verses about not being only hearers of the Word of God, but actually following the commands and directives contained within it. He said way too many things for me to recount them in this post, but one of the things he emphasized was that those of us who call ourselves believers in Christ are supposed to do what the Bible tells us to do. He talked about how we come to church and listen and sometimes are even convicted by what we hear and feel guilty, and then we walk out of church and don't change a thing ... we hear the Word, but we don't do the Word. We may intend to make changes or do things differently, but intentions are a far cry from applications. I would take it one step further than the preacher did this morning and say that we often choose which parts of the Word we want to hear ... there are some commands in the Good Book that we simply ignore or pretend aren't there at all. As the minister spoke, I kept thinking about my T-shirt ... this is what it says in big yellow letters on the back:

Love Thy Neighbor

Thy Homeless Neighbor
Thy Muslim Neighbor
Thy Black Neighbor
Thy Gay Neighbor
Thy White Neighbor
Thy Jewish Neighbor
Thy Christian Neighbor
Thy Atheist Neighbor
Thy Racist Neighbor
Thy Addicted Neighbor

Remember when I wrote about having a weepy meltdown at work before I left to go on vacation and ending up in a conference room with one of my company's vice presidents bawling my eyes out? For some reason that I've yet to figure out, I told her about my shirt ... I told her that I wanted to wear it to work but ... get this, really get the words you're about to read ... I was afraid my shirt might offend someone. Now tell me ... what did that statement say about the way I live out the Word of God? I was afraid that other people would be offended by a very literal, very real, very truthful application of the verses in the Bible that tell me to love my neighbor as myself ... not just my neighbor who looks or acts in a manner that I deem worthy ... God's Word tells me to love my neighbor, period. In fact, Jesus said that loving my neighbor is the next most important commandment after loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. And I ... I ... I was afraid of offending other people by wearing a shirt that, in my opinion, pays tribute to the very command that Jesus said was the second most important one in all of God's Word.

As I told the VP about my shirt that day, I wept. I wept not simply because I was already emotional ... I wept as I confessed to her that I was once the person who didn't love the groups listed on the shirt. I sat in judgment over others ... I sat in judgment in a big way. As the tears quite literally poured from my eyes that day, I said, "I used to be that person ... I used to be the one who judged, and now I understand what it is to be on the other side ... now I understand what it is to be the one who is judged ... I pray every day that God will never allow me to judge another person again ... never ever ... I know the pain that comes with judgment ... now I know the pain. I pray that God will never let me hurt another person like that again."

I've worn my shirt to work a couple of times since our conversation that day, and I've received only positive comments about it from my co-workers, including one person who said, "Cool shirt, T. Sure would be a better world if we all did what it says." And you know what? I agree with him ... it sure would be a better world if we stopped just hearing the Word and actually started doing the Word ... it sure would indeed.

Love thy neighbor, friends ... love thy homeless neighbor, thy Muslim neighbor, thy black neighbor, thy gay neighbor, thy white neighbor, thy Jewish neighbor, thy Christian neighbor, thy atheist neighbor, thy racist neighbor, thy addicted neighbor ... just love thy neighbor, friends, just love thy neighbor.