The Neighbor Nobody Talks To

He has been two doors down for four years and nobody on that street has had a conversation with him.

Everybody waves. That is the thing that makes it worse rather than better. He waves, they wave, he puts his bins out on the same night as everybody else and takes them in on the same morning, and in four years the exchange has never gone past a hand going up.

It is not unfriendliness. Nobody on that street dislikes him. They just do not have a route in, and after a while a thing like that sets, and by the third year it would feel strange to change it.

And a few months ago you started learning some of his language.

You have not said anything to him yet. That is where this is, and it is the reason you are reading this instead of doing something else on a Saturday.

I want to say the true thing before anything useful.

Nobody asked you to do this and nobody will notice if you stop, and that is exactly why it has been so easy to keep postponing.

So I am not going to tell you what a good thing it is that you are learning it. It is, and being praised for an intention is one of the most reliable ways to keep an intention where it is.

Which now of these three

There is a question at the end of the story about the man on the Jericho road, and the question is not the one people expect.

Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? (Luke 10:36, King James Version)

Which now of these three.

Now look at what the question does, because it inverts the whole conversation that led to it. The man had asked who counts as my neighbor, which is a question about a category and about who is on the list.

And the answer comes back as a question about which of three men behaved like one.

You have been handed a question about acting rather than a question about categories, and a person two doors down has never once needed to be sorted before he could be spoken to. Luke 10:36 turns a question about lists into a question about behavior, and the Holy Spirit is the one standing with a man on a Saturday with some words and no sentence.

Now stay on what the third man in that story actually did first.

He came where he was. That is the phrase in the earlier verse and it is the whole of the difference between him and the two who passed by. The others saw the same thing he did. What he did that they did not was close the distance.

Everything else in the story happens after somebody crosses a road.

You have a road to cross that is about forty feet long, and the crossing has never once been the same thing as knowing what to say when you arrive. The Holy Spirit is the one who moves a man off his own side of a street, and Luke 10:36 puts the whole weight on which one came near.

And here is the third thing, which is the shape of the sentence.

Was the one unto him. It is a verb in that question rather than a description. Not who was his neighbor by geography, which was all three of them and had been for years. Which one did the being.

Geography had already put those men on the same road and it had not produced anything.

You have lived beside somebody for four years without the geography producing anything, and being near has never once been the same as being one. Luke 10:36 makes it an act rather than a position, and the Spirit of God is the one on a street where everybody waves and nobody speaks.

The wave is the obstacle

Here is the practical half, and it starts with something that has been read as a good sign.

The waving is the problem. That is not a joke and it is worth sitting with.

A wave is a complete exchange. It opens and closes in one second, both men have done the right thing, and nothing is left unfinished for either of them to attend to. It is a fully sealed unit of politeness, and after four years of them there is a working arrangement on that street that nobody feels bad about.

That is why nothing has ever developed. Not hostility. A functioning system.

You have been up against a working arrangement rather than a cold man, and a system that suits everybody has never once been the same thing as a wall. Luke 10:36 asks which one crossed the road rather than which one felt warmly, and the Holy Spirit is the one on a street where politeness has been doing all the work.

You have been part of a small sealed arrangement for four years, and a complete exchange has never once left a door open behind it. The Spirit of God is the one on a street where everybody has done the polite thing for four years, and Luke 10:36 asks which one actually did the being.

Now here is what a sentence in his language does that a wave cannot.

It does not close. That is the whole mechanical difference. A sentence in somebody's own language, said badly by a neighbor who has clearly been working at it, cannot be answered with a nod. It requires him to say something back, and whatever he says back requires you to say something to that.

You will be over your depth by the third exchange. That is fine. The point is that the unit does not seal.

You have a way to open something that cannot be closed with a nod, and a badly said sentence has never once been answerable with a wave. Luke 10:36 puts the whole question on which one came near, and the Holy Spirit is the one who gets a careful man across forty feet of street.

And here is the thing about four years, said plainly.

He has noticed. A man who has lived four years on a street where nobody speaks to him is entirely aware of it, whatever face he has been wearing at the bins, and he has almost certainly concluded something about why.

One sentence in his own language does not just start a conversation. It corrects a conclusion he has been carrying since before your youngest was born.

You have something to say that answers a question he has been holding for four years, and one sentence has never once been a small thing to a man who had drawn a conclusion. The Spirit of God is the one who knows what a man at those bins has been telling himself, and the written word makes the neighboring an act and never a position.

One sentence at the bins

So here is the assignment, and there is a specific evening for it.

Say one prepared sentence to that person, and let the rest of it be in English.

Bin night. Both of you out there anyway, in the dark, with nobody watching, and no occasion has to be made of it.

One sentence in his language. A greeting and something about the weather is entirely enough.

You have an evening when you are both outside already, and a sentence said at the bins has never once needed to be an occasion. Luke 10:36 asks which of them came near rather than which of them had the right words, and the Holy Spirit is the one on a dark street with two men and their bins.

And here is what to do about the next thirty seconds, because you will be out of your depth almost immediately.

Go into English and stay warm. That is allowed and it is the whole design of this.

The sentence was never meant to carry a conversation. It was meant to open one, and once it is open you can talk about the street and the bins and the roadworks in English like anybody else, and the four years will be over regardless of which language the rest of it happens in.

Then stop, because one sentence is the assignment, and going back inside afterward is permitted and nothing is owed.

You have permission to go straight into English after one sentence, and a mixed conversation has never once been a lesser thing than a fluent one. The Spirit of God is the one on that street when two men finally talk about the roadworks, and Luke 10:36 asks only which one crossed.