What matters in life are not great deeds,

but great love. St Therese of Lisieux

Neighbourhood gestation...

The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full belief that something hidden will manifest itself to us. Impatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else and therefore want to go elsewhere. The moment is empty. But patient people dare to stay where they are. Patient living means to live actively in the present and wait there. Waiting, then, is not passive. It involves nurturing the moment, as a mother nurtures the child that is growing in her womb. HNouwen

Is your neighbourhood frigid?

Are you helping to 'change the atmosphere'?

Nurture a giving heart in your neighbourhood.

The word community has many connotations, some positive, some negative. Community can make us think of a safe togetherness, shared meals, common goals, and joyful celebrations. It also can call forth images of sectarian exclusivity, in-group language, self-satisfied isolation, and romantic naiveté. However, community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another. 

Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own (see Philippians 2:4-11). The question, therefore, is not "How can we make community?" but "How can we develop and nurture giving hearts?" HNouwen

Stop wasting your time & energy running after the perfect neighbourhood.

Live fully in your current neighbourhood today.

Matthew 10
Don't begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don't try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighbourhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here. Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.

The passage below explains how God feels about your neighbours.

God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.

God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world. He sent his Son to save the world through him.

How should this shape the way we view our neighbours today?

Your neighbourhood can be lifted up by positive action.

Any neighbourhood can!

Our world will bring us many neighbours.

The best evidence of our adoration of Jesus is our emulation of Him. RMNelson

Don't cop out!