Neighbor to neighbor. Sounds folksy. Easy-going. Downright neighborly. Right? Well, not so fast there, neighbor. Because it can get mighty messy in a big hurry.
Have you ever heard of the neighbor to neighbor app, Nextdoor?
It was apparently started so neighbors could watch out for each other. And keep in touch. And make recommendations. Sounds decent enough. But there’s one thing the app creators failed to take into consideration. Or they just didn’t care. And that’s the fact that human beings are involved.
And have you noticed, especially lately, how mean and vindictive human beings can be to each other? Yeah, even to people, who live in their neighborhood, they don’t know at all.
I just read an article that shared info about Nextdoor. Check this out this excerpt from that article, and see if you still wanna join.
“If you’re not on the Nextdoor site, the only way to know you are being targeted is for someone to tell you. Ever have a disgruntled neighbor? Imagine that they can publicly post your name, address, description of you and any spurious story they chose to make up and you will be none the wiser. Now who among us hasn’t had a rift or two with a neighbor along the way? Depending on just how vicious that person your disagreement with is, you could find yourself being defamed right where you live. What was once reserved only for the famous or conversely those mean girls in High School, is now being brought to every ‘adult’ in America via Nextdoor. And herein lies the problem, with Nextdoor, there are no checks and balances. Not only that, their Customer Services team is more concerned with the privacy of their members than that of a libeled person. A post may be taken down but extending an apology for the damage or untenable living environment their program can spawn may be hard to come by.”
The article went on to say…
“Nextdoor has no valid Corporate phone numbers. Their main number doesn’t answer and their alternate number is an answering machine that doesn’t identify the company. Even the Better Business Bureau doesn’t have valid phone contact information for them. FYI, their rating is a D- and their SiteJabber profile has an 86% disapproval rating. So Nextdoor needs to step up to the plate, post working Corporate numbers, train their neighborhood Moderators on proper neighborly behavior and not allow personal assassinations and accusations on their site. In other words, they need to uphold the contract they have people agree to when they sign up! Nextdoor needs to take full responsibility when they allow people to be harassed, maligned and lied about and eat a little crow by understanding the dangers of their program.”
Knowing all that, can you still love your neighbor as yourself?
After all, God tells you to do that. So, it’s obviously mighty important.
And it’s even more important to know how. Love doesn’t mean you have to be a doormat, always turn the other cheek, or take abuse on Nextdoor. In fact, most of the time, if you’re doing those things, you might not actually love your neighbor.
The main thing to focus on, when it comes to loving someone is how your words, deeds, and actions will affect them. With an eternal perspective first. Everything else is secondary to that. After all…which is more important to your life? 80 years of chaos and confusion here on earth? Or an eternity of perfection with the one true, living, loving Creator of Heaven and life?
(here’s a hint…go with the second choice)
When you have an eternal perspective, you’ll know how important it is to make sure your neighbor understand there IS a God. And there IS a Heaven. And there IS a choice to be made here and now.
Since God wishes that “none should perish”, we should too. But to love your neighbor as yourself means you’re willing to share the whole Truth.
Not just the peace, love, joy, and forgiveness.
Because you don’t do neighbors a favor when you forgive them of something and they didn’t even show remorse or ask for forgiveness. And you don’t love your neighbor when you never say anything about Jesus to him or her.
If you truly want to love in a neighbor to neighbor way, speak up. Stand up. Get up right now and show them the full love, justice, and mercy of Jesus. Even if you start with someone in your family…start.
And if you have a profile on Nextdoor, I recommend you delete it. They don’t make that easy, by the way, and that should be another red flag.
Stay tuned,
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