Power of God & a Couple Chairs :)

This week I have had a little time off and it has been nice.  Been enjoying the beautiful weather and the breeze.  I live in a small ranch style house built in the 50's.  The yard has nice big trees, they give great shade to the yard, and bring a lot of different birds from all around.  I have a cloth hammock in my back yard, and I will lay on it sometimes.  It is really cool, but sometimes it seems little silly sitting out in my back yard by myself.

This prompted me this year to get some chairs for my front yard so I could sit outside and enjoy watching the neighbors walk by with their dogs, mow their yards, etc.  So I was in Aldi's the other day and they had these red chairs for a good deal. So I put them out and spent an hour one evening reading out there. It was pretty interesting how just sitting out in your front yard you can interact with your neighbors. I had at least 6 different people say hi or wave in 1 hour!

The nice weather helps of course, but I was kind of impressed at what just sitting out in the front yard could do to my connection to the neighbors.  This is no novel idea.  People did this way more even just 30 years ago before technology and computers sucked up our free time.

Last night my sister-in-law and my niece came down and then my next door neighbor came over and we sat in the front yard and talked for nearly an hour together.  Learned more about my neighbor in that short time than I had known the whole 4+ years I have lived next to her, just by being available and visible.

It's not the easiest for me to make friends as an introvert.  It's a real stretch some days to get out and talk to people in an environment that isn't structured and no specific purpose.  I'm thinking this chair thing may help that.  :)

As a Christian I have many a time got so caught up in just living my life with my little Christian circles that I forget my purpose here on this planet, to tell others about Jesus.  I never really knew how to connect with people outside of church.  Now, I'm learning, and I'm finding out a couple chairs in the front yard can make an impact. So simple is ridiculous really.

• In Mark 12:30-31 Jesus Says: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. ’ The second is this:‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ’ There is no commandment greater than these." NIV

So I have this passion to be the kind of Christian that is Real and Relatable, not so stuck in church stuff that I don't even know how to talk to my neighbors.  God has moved in my heart, and I want others to know this in their heart as well.  What better way than getting to know them and letting God show us who they are in His eyes.

I feel loved when people notice me and are available to me to hang out or talk.  So one way for me to love my neighbor as myself, is to notice them and make myself available to listen and hang out.  It's a win win! I make friends and I learn how I can love them better by getting to know them.

Lesson for me this week, is never under estimate the power of God and a couple of chairs! :) 

How can you better connect with your neighbors or the people you run into on a daily basis?  The answer may be as easy as a prayer and a couple chairs, at the coffee shop, library, community center, or like me in your own front yard.  Who knows you might even make a new friend :)