When was the last time you were bothered?

Three weeks ago one of my favourite author's passed away.  His name was Ray Bradbury and he was a well-known author mainly for his work in "The Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 451".  In Fahrenheit 451 he wrote the following 

"We need not to be let alone.  We need to be really bothered once in a while.  How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?"  

You know that feeling where you are woken up suddenly, especially from a long deep sleep.  The moment I read that quote it was like God woke up me from a deep slumber that I had been in and it has been burned into my memory ever since.  So often we get bothered with things that are not important, about things that at the end of the day don’t matter.  Matthew 22:39 says "and the second is like it:'Love your neighbour as yourself." I also recognize the difficulty some people have with this passage as they struggle with loving themselves(but that is an entirely different post).

 What does loving your neighbour look like? 

You may disagree with me, but I think that loving our neighbour ties right back into what Ray was trying to say in his Science Fiction book.  It is about being bothered about something important.  It is about being bothered about something real.  Are you bothered by the person on the street who is asking for a few dollars to make it through the day? Are you bothered that there is drought like never before seen in history in the horn of Africa?  Are you bothered by the fact that right now there are more slaves than in any other time in human history? Or are you bothered because you can’t afford a bigger TV? Or was the last time you were bothered because you didn’t get along with a coworker? Or maybe you last cared about arguing with your spouse about the colour of a wall in your house?  God has called us to open our arms as wide as we can and love the world. 

John 13:35 – By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another

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Ryan Filsinger is a husband, father, hockey lover, video game producer and aspiring social architect.  He has been in part time youth ministry for the last 6 years in Charlottetown, PEI.  You can find him on twitter @rfilsinger or read his rarely updated blog at www.filsinger.org