A young acquaintance once asked me, “Is it true that hard workers make the best neighbors?” “I don’t know,” I replied, as I struggled to enjoy my morning coffee. I am not much of a philosophical thinker, and questions like this make my head hurt. Especially before I have finished my morning espresso!
We parted ways with the question still unresolved, but it haunted me throughout the day. Do hard workers make the best neighbors?
Are Hard Workers the Best Neighbors?
As I pondered the question, I remembered one of my grandfather’s neighbors. There were these two brothers who lived on a farm near my grandfather’s farm. We passed their farm every day on the way into town. These brothers always seemed to get their field plowed and planted late. They let weeds grow up in their fields that blew across into neighboring farms. They were never around to help a neighbor in need.
They were not hard working and certainly were not the best neighbors. They did not take their responsibility as stewards of the land seriously, and they showed a remarkable lack of compassion and care for their neighbors.
As my mind continued to consider the question, I remembered Leroy and Madeleine, a neighbor couple in rural Oregon. Leroy had worked for a pump manufacturer all his life. Now retired and in their 70’s, Leroy and Madeleine were outside almost every day working hard on their little farm tending to their vegetables and a small vineyard.
When Barb and I moved right behind their property they were the first people to come over and welcome us to Oregon. Leroy loaned me equipment to till my garden and gave me lots of advice to make my garden more productive. They visited often bringing us bounty from their garden and the fruit of the vine!
They were hard workers who were the best neighbors! They were dedicated stewards of all that they had and happily shared their knowledge and bounty with others.
Paul’s Command to Us
I thought, “Perhaps hard workers do make the best neighbors!” And then I remembered something Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need Ephesians 4:28 (HCSB).
Paul is saying we must do honest work that yields an increase so we can share with those in need.
We must work hard. We must work diligently so we can not only supply our own needs but also so that we yield enough to share with our neighbors. It is an issue of both capacity and compassion.
Who Is Our Neighbor?
But who is our neighbor, you ask?
Jesus answered this very question of who our neighbor is in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37).
You know the story. A man traveling along a road is beaten and robbed and left for dead at the side of the road. A priest walking along saw the man and crossed to the other side of the road as he passed by the man. Later, a Levite also saw the beaten man and passed him by without stopping.
Finally, a Samaritan man came along. The Samaritan stopped, tended to the man’s wounds, and took him to a nearby inn. He stayed with the injured man that day and the next day the Samaritan paid the innkeeper to care for the man.
The priest exhibited no compassion for the injured man. Neither did the Levite. But the Samaritan man had compassion for a man he did not know yet stopped to help — the Samaritan could also afford to pay for the care of the injured man.
It seems the Samaritan worked hard enough so he could not only meet his own needs, but he had the capacity to share with someone else in need
The Samaritan had both compassion and capacity. He was a good neighbor.
A Lesson for Us
Although there are those, who suggest that wealth is evil, I think the real evil is a lack of compassion for our fellow man.
I am thankful the Samaritan had compassion for the injured man. But what good is compassion without having the resources to help? I am especially thankful the Samaritan was a hard-working man who had the resources to help someone in need.
According to the parable of the Good Samaritan, the best neighbors are those who have both compassion and capacity. So, it turns out hard workers DO make the best neighbors!
Join the Conversation
As always, questions and comments are welcome. Do you think both compassion and capacity combine to make the best neighbors?
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Category: Personal Development | Character
