Yesterday, I spent a few hours of my day serving beer to my neighbor. Now, that is a sentence I never thought I would open a blog post with but such is my life.

I came home from school to find our neighbors house flooded with cops, ambulances, and all manner of peeps. I am friendly with our next door neighbors but don’t know the intricacies of their lives but when trouble hits, I am there.

As soon as the last car pulled away, I quickly ran over to hug my neighbor. She cried out that she had just returned from burying her mother to find the love of her life had passed away on her living room couch. Two deaths in less than a week. Just like that, the people that she loved the most were both gone.

I grabbed her a chair and we sat in the shade under a tree in her front yard, just the two of us. There were moments of pure silence and there were eruptions of deep anguish. I listened as she groaned about the fear she faced and I allowed no reaction from me to surface when she screamed curse words.

I cried with her.
I sat beside her.
I served her beer. It was all she wanted and refused anything else. We just sat there in two red chairs and grieved. Two women who have both experienced devastating losses.

I waited for family to show. A cousin came and went. I waited for friends to show. One came and went. I watched the clock as church came and went as we sat under the tree in the Louisiana heat. Finally the cousin returned to take my neighbor to her friends house for the night. We hugged and I watched as this devastated figure climbed into the truck and drove into the night.

I have noticed a trend lately in Christian circles, we are more concerned about behavior than the person. We are offended by the curse words and care little of the heart condition. Some of you are mad I served a beer. Some of you haven’t been around anyone who even curses. Some of us have spent so much time inside the church building that we forgot we are to go out and BE THE CHURCH.

It is time to get in the trenches with people. It is time to sit next to our neighbor and quietly serve them. God will open their hearts to the gospel of Jesus Christ and give you an opportunity to share.