Sometimes, the Bible\’s advice to love your neighbor as yourself isn\’t always as easy to do as it sounds. There are times when good neighborly relations can be downright difficult to maintain. Not so long ago, God sat me down to have a little conversation about how I view and treat my own neighbors. The experience illustrated for me once again what a loving and patient teacher God can be. He knows how to gently but firmly reveal our own shortcomings. Take for example, this case of the borrowed roasting pan…

Cold weather always makes me want to cook. Whether it is baking chocolate chip cookies or roasting a chicken or a slab of beef, the aromas of home cooking add warmth and coziness to the short days of winter. When the first cold front came through not so long ago, I went to the fridge, took out my roast and went in search of my oven pan. This was going to be an all-day slow roast and I was going to love every delicious aromatic hour of it. Now, where was my pan? Oh, yes! I remembered…I had lent it to my neighbor earlier in the week. Darn it! This was not good because the only other ovenware I owned at the time were two muffin tins and a pizza pan — certainly not anything I could cook a large roast in. I was going to have to ask for it back.

I really didn\’t want to go outside and over to her house. In truth, I felt more annoyed than anything that I should even have to. After all, she had had my pan for five days already. Five days… that\’s more than enough time to cook a meal and serve any leftovers from it. I grabbed my coat and my slippers and ran over to her house. The minute I opened the door, the cold air blew my hair onto my face. I pushed it back. My whole body shivered. \”Why don\’t you just stay home and make something else? She will bring your pan back soon enough,\” I heard the Spirit of God say to me in my heart on the way to her house. \”But God…she\’s had my pan five days now and it\’s cold outside and I am going to make roast. Roast, God. Roast!\” I pushed my way through the cold and knocked on her door. \”Hey there…I\’m just here to pick up my baking dish. I am going to cook a roast today. Do you have it?\” I said to her forcing my way into the living room of her house. She was still in her pajamas…but then, so was I. \”Sort of,\” she said. \”I just have to wash it real quick. It still has cornbread in it from yesterday.\”

Suddenly, I felt mad…and embarrassed to be standing there…all at the same time. \”You know what? Nevermind. I\’ll just get it later.\” I left abruptly…very abruptly. \”I told you,\” God said to me as I left her house. The cold air blew my hair in my face again. This time, I didn\’t push it back, I just ran home. Cornbread? I repeated it to myself over and over. Cornbread! Needless to say that on that day, I did not eat roast nor was I comforted by the delicious smells of aromatic home cooking. With every passing hour that my pan remained in her home, I stewed in anger and marinated in resentment towards my neighbor for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I decided to go to bed early. I figured that I would try to sleep my anger off. So, I crawled into bed, disgusted with my day and tried…and tried…and tried.

Have you ever seen the old cartoons where the character becomes so angry that steam starts coming out of their ears? Well, at about 2:00am, I threw off my blankets, sat straight up in my bed and became that cartoon! There was only one way I was going to get over this…time to power clean. Now, for those of you who do not know, power cleaning is not the same as regular cleaning. Power cleaning is serious! Furniture can get moved. Areas that have not seen a cleaning rag in eons come into play. Into the kitchen, I stomped clanging and banging about as I washed dishes, cleaned the oven and scrubbed the sink all the while muttering aloud at the ingratitude of my neighbor and the disrespect of my neighbor and the thoughtlessness of my neighbor. Didn\’t she know how lucky she was to have me — me as a neighbor?! Honestly! Five days! Five days..and even after I went to her house, she still didn\’t even bring it to me the entire day either? \”What does she need? A billboard? I mean, really, God? Really?!\”

It\’s funny that I had the nerve to drag God back into this. I had after all been ignoring Him ever since He told me not to go to my neighbor\’s house in the first place. It was even funnier that I totally expected Him to agree with me and side with me on this matter. I mean, after all— wasn\’t it obvious who was in the wrong here? It was about that time that I finished scrubbing the oven hood. So, I went about gathering all the house trash in preparation to take it out to the dumpster…still muttering and reasoning with God and no one else in particular. I walked over to the hall closet and as I opened the door to get my coat, there on the shelf above the rack…plain as day…was the pet carrier my father-in-law had lent me to borrow three months earlier to take my cat to the vet!

I stood in complete silence for a good long while, put down the trash bag and started to shake my head and laugh…all the while staring up at the pet carrier. \”Yes, Lord, I get it. You have definitely made your point,\” I said. I put my coat back into the closet and made myself take the trash out in the cold. Then I washed my hands and crawled back into bed. \”Is there anything else you want to tell me about your neighbor?\” God asked me as I snuggled up under the warm sheets. \”No, God…I\’m good. I got it, Lord. Thank you, Father…that won\’t be necessary. I\’m good.\”

Mallah Rych Hurst is the editor-in- chief of the online magazine, The Manor Message. She is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University with a degree in Speech Communication. She has written two children\’s books and a poetry book. She is married and has one son.

Website: http://www.poreepublishing.com Mallah Rych Hurst is the editor-in- chief of the online magazine, The Manor Message. She is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University with a degree in Speech Communication. She is married and has one son.

Author Bio: Mallah Rych Hurst is the editor-in- chief of the online magazine, The Manor Message. She is a graduate of Southwest Texas State University with a degree in Speech Communication. She has written two children\’s books and a poetry book. She is married and has one son.

Category: Relationships
Keywords: relationships, neighbors, God, getting along