I had a 1 1/2 hour conversation with my neighbor this evening. I've only lived in the neighborhood 3 months (a townhome community), and I've been wanting to know my neighbors better. But it's been difficult. My neighbor who shares a building with me has this little yippie dog that weighs about 10 pounds (looks similar to the dog in the picture), but it constantly barks it's little yippie head off and lunges at me like he's possessed by beezelbub. And since I almost never encounter my neighbor unless he's out walking this little hell-minion (named Sugar), he has successfully thwarted nearly every attempted conversation. . . until today.
I decided to play "barking chicken" with him. The object of "barking chicken" is to begin talking to my neighbor, pretend I don't notice the exceedingly annoying Sugar and his high pitched, ear-piercing bark, and force my neighbor to be the first one to do something to end the the barking before I do. Of course the way I usually end the barking is by walking away (although there are plenty of other ways I fantasized about ending his barking involving a trip to some back-alley Vietnamese restaurants and a rotisserie oven). Thankfully my neighbor lost "barking chicken" today by taking Sugar inside the house and coming back outside to finish our conversation.
Alot of good stuff came out of our conversation today. We talked about some spiritual stuff, about God, why he doesn't like going to church . . . I think we laid a great foundation for future conversations on spiritual things. I also spent a good part of an hour and a half listening to him rant and rave about our home owners association. This particular neighbor is retired (about 70 years old, I suspect) and has lived in his home since the neighborhood was built 10 years ago, and during that time, he has served on the home owner's association board and seen MANY new board members and HOA presidents come and go. And oh . . . the DRAMA! He told me about the time he suspected the board president was not managing the HOA properly and how he staged a coup to have the board president "impeached" (I'm not kidding). He had all kinds of things to say about how he thought they SHOULD be managing things, what they SHOULD be fixing, which neighbors were taking care of their property, which were not. He made it clear that he felt it was his duty and responsibility to keep our neighborhood board's "feet to the fire!" It reminded me of some of those old Seinfeld episodes involving Jerry's parents in their Florida retirement community.
I was so happy the conversation happened, but it also made me kinda sad. At the risk of sounding judgmental I think it's really sad when I see someone living in a very, very, small world. I feel so blessed to constantly be surrounded by people whose greatest intentions, thoughts, and emotional energy is occupied by God, their families, and bringing love, justice, and Jesus to the world . . . things that at the end of the day, really count. It's hard for me to imagine that for some people, what most dominates their hearts are things as menial as the value of their home and whether or not the crack on the street in front of their house is getting fixed.
It's a reminder for me that when I help introduce people to Jesus, I'm not only helping a person discover eternal salvation but a better view of a much BIGGER and more BEAUTIFUL world.