Long story short, yesterday my colleagues and myself had the privilege of driving neo-monastic and founder of The Simple Way Shane Claiborne from a conference we were all attending in Raleigh to a speaking engagement at Wake Forest University. Now I have always admired Shane however when I learned that we would be spending a little time with him, I was a little uneasy.
If you know me, you know I have a soft spot in my heart for the finer things in life. I can often be spotted in a bow-tie or a pair of designer jeans and I knowing I was about to meet someone that has literally “sold everything and given to the poor” I was feeling very vulnerable. Honestly, I think I was expecting a speech about the rich young ruler who couldn’t enter the kingdom of heaven because he unable to part with all his stuff. Needless to say I was worried...
Shane blew me away. I’m not sure I have ever met a more gracious, authentic, or humane human in my entire life. We drove Shane (and got him lost) in my pastor’s new Volvo sedan and our pastoral staff was well dressed in clothes that were hardly used. Shane was dressed in clothes that his community had made themselves and had dreadlocks halfway down to his waist. As we got 20 minutes outside of Greensboro I finally broke. I told him as plainly as I could that he was Shane Claiborne and that I might not ever get the chance to talk to him one-on-one again and that if he didn’t mind I would like to ask him a few fairly serious questions. Shane didn’t mind and this was the first thing I asked.
In doing what you do, is there anything that you have discovered that is distinctly human that can be applied in any geographical area to any particular group of people?
Shane’s answer was so simple. I did not no if I should laugh or sit in awe. I chose the latter. Shane said that all his community is trying to do is love and be good neighbors. According to Shane everything else they do stems from this. Sounds pretty cliche right? I mean did this guy seriously just have the audacity to tell me to love and be a good neighbor?
For some reason Shane’s response to my question hit me in a way that I can’t quite explain. For the first time, this concept was real. I truly felt as if Jesus himself had just spoken this word to be and the reality is that if Jesus we’re physically walking the halls of Wake Forest today he would probably look a lot like Shane. Love and be a good neighbor.
“Love others as much as you love yourself.” This was another challenge from Shane. I love myself a lot. After talking to Shane, I felt that I have spent a great deal of my life loving me way more than I love others. He tells me this as I had just left a family vacation in which I ravished the Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, and J. Crew outlet malls. The application was simple, do for others not what you would have them do for you but rather what you already do for yourself.
So today I give you the same challenge that I have been given. Love. Love others as much as you love yourself and be a good neighbor knowing that everyone is your neighbor. Even if you feel that someone is 90% wrong, this still means that they are 10% right and that 10% can be a powerful thing when leveraged (another Shaneism).
So may you love and be a good neighbor.
What are practical ways we can all do this?
