Love your neighbor

Matthew 22:37-40

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

 

My approach to interacting with people has changed drastically over the years. As I look back on it, I feel like something has been revealed to me about that. Several years ago, I despised situations where I knew I would have to talk to people, like school and other social gatherings, because I wasn't a very good conversationalist. I saw how people would exchange pleasantries and make small talk with a smile that they seemed to paste on regardless of whether they meant it or not. I didn't like what I saw. I knew there had to be so much more than that and I didn't want anything to do with it. So, as I avoided shallow conversations and false representations of how I really felt, I became alienated and bitter. I ended up avoiding conversation and human contact as much as possible because I didn't like the reputation I had achieved. So after a year or two of living this way, I became weary. It was to the point where I couldn't bring myself to initiate even a simple conversation with someone I actually wanted to talk to because it was so far beyond my comfort zone. It's like I wanted to be under water but wasn't willing to break the surface tension. I began to pray about it and asked God to change me. What he revealed to me was that I had lacked a love for people. I was always so over analytical of what people thought of me that I never gave them a chance. I began reading books about how to essentially be more likable (I know, weird right?) and the principles fascinated me. I took some time off of school and just discovered who God created me to be and how to get things turned back around. Jesus said seek and you will find, so as I sought truth, God revealed it. In fact, he's changed my heart so much, to the point where I view every conversation, and every interaction as an opportunity for someone to experience the love of Christ through me (I at least try to anyway). If I'm in a situation where I'm around people, whether I know them very well or not, I try to see it as an opportunity to make them smile. If I can let someone see that I went out of my way just for them, it could make their day. Dale Carnegie said, "I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."
I love this outlook. Now, small talk doesn't have to be fake. I don't have to be talking  about something  of huge importance in order to allow someone to experience the joy that God has given me. If I'm only talking about the weather, yet I do it with a genuine care for the person I'm talking to, that becomes a rich conversation. And besides, isn't a shallow conversation necessary before delving into any in-depth confabulation?
One of my favorite examples of how far simple kindness goes, happened to me one day a while back. I was at Jack in the Box and as I went to throw away my trash, another customer nearby opened the lid and held it for me. It was a small gesture of kindness, but as I thanked him, with a big smile on his face he said," You're welcome brother, you're welcome." It was a simple statement, but the way he said it was so genuine. It wasn't just a programmed response. I genuinely felt like this guy who I had never met cared about me. I saw the love of Christ in him and it has impacted me to this day.
So, the moral of the story.. dare to love people and see what happens.