Tonight is "National Night Out", an "effort to promote involvement in crime prevention activities, police-community partnerships, [and] neighborhood camaraderie." For us, we used it as an "excuse" to open up our home to our neighbors in an effort to get to know them better (or at all).
The idea came to me at a recent Albuquerque Ministry Alliance meeting, where the speaker talked about the purposeful effort he and his wife made in praying for the Lord to open doors of opportunity to love on their neighbors. One thing led to another and they now have a thriving neighborhood network.
I felt a sense of sadness that after 2 1/2 years in our home, we had hardly met anyone on our block. Of those we had met, I barely knew their names. So, after prayer and consulting Bob, our neighborhood open house was planned.
The experience of going door to door, passing out invitation flyers didn't go as I had imagined. We had neighbors who rolled their eyes, closed their doors, or looked out the window and opt not to ever open the door. I had somehow envisioned a 1950's TV sitcom response. It clearly didn't go that way.
Yet, over the next few days, the phone calls started to come in. First one, then a few more, and finally 15 responded, saying they would attend. Even as I write now, another neighbor called (expressing regret that a prior commitment would keep her from attending).
So tonight, my house will be full of neighborhood strangers. My hope and prayer is that this event will serve as a catalyst, promoting friendship and trust. I will try not to have unrealistic expectations about what will transpire. As a wise man once told me "We are simply called to act. We are not responsible for the outcome." We acted in faith and have opened our doors. The rest is up to the Lord.
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