School is over, and may be for ever. Graduation happened yesterday and tonight I sit in front of my table back home hesitance for life to continue. Yet it must and I can not escape its nearing approach. Those of you who journeyed with me to this end I am deeply indebted to. The same goes for several others both in and outside of our K7 group who have continued to help me through the past several years in various ways.
I was listening to Adventures in Odyssey's 'Pilgrims' Progress revisited' on cassette in the ol' van during the drive home this morning and was thinking about how Bunyan's allegory doesn't seem to have a depiction for the importance of the church (though, having still not yet read the book my statements may not be entirely accurate). Main character Christian, while dependent on his companion Hope, does not seem to need (or at the very least bump into) other 'Christian's' travelling the same path as him, requiring the interdependence of each other to survive many of the challenges that he finds himself facing, as what we actually see in the lives of Jesus' followers.
Being burdened with the sadness of the future unknown, and who I will venture with again this side of heaven, I find myself speaking to God with imperatives, sternly telling him that some of these people I love and have left I am indebted to for the deep investment they have made in my life and that he better be already aligning events so that I have the opportunity to pay them back a little more. We are indebted to each other and it would not be pleasant for things to stay how they have been left.
For ages and eons, people died where they lived and were born. People's lifelong friends were those people they grew up with. They needed the work and service of several generations of their family so they all lived together. It is no shock and awe to me then that mothers find it difficult when their children move out of the house; when "independent" adults struggle through life; when good friends are divided by hundreds or thousands of miles (and no degree of social networking can fill this gap).
Halfway along driving home with my parents we stopped for lunch at my dad's best friend's house (ya, turns out I am not related to the guy I thought was my second cousin). They were both best men for each other's wedding. They have not hung out like they physically did this afternoon in a while yet it was extremely refreshing for me to see them interact as if only a week had past since the last time. While a very similar thing happens when Jeremy and I are able to converse over the phone, even then a longing resonates inside me for another time when I can embrace him and go venture beside.
That may be while I try to keep in touch with him occasionally when apart. I wait in eager (though sometimes mournful) anticipation when I can be with him again, and while I know it will probably shorter than I want it to be, I make sure to know enough about what's been happening so as to spend less time catching up on the past and more time soaking up in the present when that time does come.
However...
This can not happen with all whom I would like it to. First of all, I am bad enough as it is to try keeping in contact with those I care about. But also, something else I have been thinking about in these last days of graduation. After the pharisee asks "Who is my neighbour?" from having just heard that the command "love thy neighbour as thyself" is just as great a command as loving God, Jesus tells his Good Samaritan parable, and this is how I understand Jesus' reply to his question: He did not simply state that the neighbour to be loved is the poor or the oppressed. Neither did he say it was the widows and orphans. It was not some general comment regarding some person or people in a particularly hard state "out there." I think there is much order behind Jesus' reply. We know a Samaritan helping a Jewish man would have brought a level of shock to Jesus' audience but the thing that I think should shock us is how specific Jesus' reply is. My neighbour who is to be loved is the person who has a need that I can physically and tangibly meet in addition to going about the daily activities of my life.
My life is a "circle" that includes where I live, work, and play (roughly speaking), and it is relatively not that big. It includes my house, my job site, my playground, my church, and the area interconnecting them. As I move around these boundaries move around. I am not sure if it is even that big because I can not be in all of those places keeping track of the activities within that well. To think of this including the whole world and all the injustices taking place is an impossibility beyond imagination. But as I go about living in this 'boundary,' those people that fall into this area with needs obligate me to help them in what way I can; just as the Samaritan on his way to his destination saw someone in need along the path he was taking to reach where he was going did what he could to bandage his wounds and bring him to someone who could help with greater attention as the Samaritan proceeded with his planned duties.
I have not been called to end poverty or world hunger, aids, malaria, or contaminated water issues in Africa because people half way across the world are not my neighbour. My neighbour is the family one door down whom I am too often revolted at; the immigrants who have begun attending my church; my co-workers who do not practice the life they claim to live. Believing this do I detest organizations like Compassion, short term missions trips, or attempts on behalf people to stop human trafficking? As one moves around, their boundary of who their neighbour is moves around. If I lived in an area where human trafficking happened, I would have an obligation to act out love towards this. Knowing how one loves their neighbour comes best with knowing their neighbour's needs and having discernment at the time as to fulfill the deepest needs at that time or to do work with the shallow ones. Even concerning all the good Compassion does, though I would not encourage child sponsors to cease giving funds, I feel even more could be done if there was less segregation between those doing the 'loving' and those being 'loved.' I think if pressed I would not be able to consider this act one of 'loving thy neighbour' but of 'loving some random stranger behind your money.'
'Loving thy neighbour' happens in the physical vicinity of your person and is best described as inconveniencing yourself for the good the other (too often we inconvenience others for the good of ourselves). That said, the next time you think, "It has been a while since I have heard from Mark," send me an e-mail at markguenther15@gmail.com asking how I have been loving my neighbours in my community. Please, I would absolutely love to hear from you and I will earnestly try to give you an update in return, but be aware, I plan to ask you the same question.
I have written this blog for a Purpose. Indeed, for Three Purposes! First of all, to tell you that I am immensely fond of you all, and that four years is too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable humans. I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like half of you half as well as you deserve.
Secondly, to celebrate my graduation. I should say: OUR graduation. For it is, of course, also the graduation of my brothers and sister, James, Ben, and Jade. We come of age and into our life as 'bachelors.' Together we score sixteen. Around Half Gross, if I may use the expression, of the K7 numbers in this remarkable total. It is also, if I may be allowed to refer to ancient history, the number of two more than double of the progress of our kaleo's year.
Third and finally, I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT. I regret to announce that – though, as I said, four years is far too short a time to spend among you – this is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW. GOOD-BYE!
-David
