neighborliness

My friend Doug knows what it means to be a good neighbor. He came over at 9:00 a couple nights ago to help me install a new dishwasher. We got a late start because we’d each had very long workdays.

The installation didn’t follow the script. (Do they ever, I wonder?). It was impossible to discern which breaker the electrical was wired to so we turned them all off. Of course, that meant doing much of the job by flashlight.

The not-so-helpful instructions estimated the job should take between one and three hours. Doug left our house at 1:00 in the morning. He was still smiling. Perhaps even more striking was the utter absence of profanity! That’s a good neighbor. In fact, for those four hours at least, I’d say Doug’s neighborliness bordered on the saintly.

Grace arrives in many forms. I’ve found, though, that it usually involves a palpably personal and relational element. Grace usually entails somebody choosing to be available as its conduit.



Copyright Scott Burnett 2006