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“The one feature I know I need is a fenced-in backyard,” I told my realtor as we began looking for my new townhome. I thought it would surely increase my home office productivity if I could open the door, let Snickers the dog outside, and keep on working. I prayed and even visualized Snickers running around in that fenced-in backyard as I checked off item after item on my action list.

After an exhaustive real estate search, I settled on a townhome in a lovely, small community that had every feature I needed...except the fenced-in backyard. Little did I know that God had a bigger and better plan. As Snickers and I headed out of the door four times a day, I began meeting and getting to know my neighbors. Brief conversations quickly turned into learning each other’s names. Longer conversations soon turned into sharing laughs and hearing about each other’s lives and families.

I’ll never forget the day my husband shared a new ministry principle with me. He suggested, “What if you stopped doing things for people and did things with people?”

That single question revolutionized what it meant for me to truly love my neighbor in ways that included both acts of service and also a relational commitment that changed my neighborhood forever. That year, I began to gather the neighbors together based on what our family already did each day. I was going to live with my neighbor, not simply do tasks for them.

It was a balmy June evening as several neighbors and myself gathered in a front lawn for our weekly Neighborhood Bible study. Since COVID 19, we have sought creative ways to gather together in socially distanced ways, creating an atmosphere of safety and comfort for everyone.

As we shared insights from that week’s scripture passage, we could not help notice the brown and white, bounding ball of canine energy dashing about from yard to yard.

I’ve lived in this neighborhood for nearly ten years and will never forget how we got here. At the last minute God opened the door to this house. We had often invited collegians and other groups into our previous home and dreamed of a large gathering space for them. While house-hunting I was pregnant and also had a toddler in tow, and felt so tired. But my husband coaxed, “Just look at one more -- I think this is the one.”  

And so it was! One look at the large living room and the abundant built-in storage space and I was sold. We moved in on my thirtieth birthday.  

We got settled that winter and then had our second baby, and eighteen months later, our third. I was tired all ​the time, trying to be a wife and mom and minister to college students on our local campus. Though my life was full, I felt something was missing.  I just knew that God had placed us in this​ ​house on this​ street in this​ neighborhood as his ambassadors.  I often sat at my dining table reading my Bible and gazing out the front window. The three houses I could see were inhabited by amazing older Christian women. There was not a young mom or a child as far as I could see in my neighborhood. Most of my neighbors were original home owners who had already raised their children. And here I sat, three kids under the age of four and no energy to go anywhere except the grocery store or to meet students on our local college campus. “God, why did you put me here?” I would cry out. “Did you get the address wrong?”  I longed to meet peers and talk about God and even lead Bible studies right where I was.  

The pain and anger on his employees’ faces tore at him. He could feel the wall between them. His decisions earlier that week had affected everyone. He stood at the podium ready to take the blame as he said quietly, “Look no further, the ‘elephant in the room’ is before you.”

What if he had said sarcastically, “I feel sorry for you that you don’t understand what I just decided.” Or if he had responded angrily, “It is what it is – deal with it!”

Isn’t it amazing what tone and a few words can do in any situation?