How to Celebrate “Good Neighbor Day” in One Step

Posted on by

What would we see if we could peek inside our typical American neighbor’s home? On an average day, your neighbors spend:

  • 8 hours and 44 minutes sleeping
  • 48 minutes showering, dressing, and putting on makeup
  • 7 hours and 33 minutes working, for the 41 percent of our neighbors who work
  • 74 minutes eating
  • 5 hours and 15 minutes for leisure and sports
  • 18 minutes exercising

These statistics are a few years old, but a quick scan of more current data seems to back them up.

On the other hand, here are some more recent stats that point to a troubling trend in the U.S.:

  • Users of all ages spend an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes per day on phones, tablets, and computers
  • Users of all ages spend another 4 hours and 37 minutes in front of a TV

Even if you take away time that your neighbors are online but don’t use social network sites, the average time drops to “only” two hours a day. If you do the math, at 2 hours a day x 366 days a year (it’s a Leap Year, folks), that’s almost 31 days a year with our faces buried in a small screen.

By the way, did you know Saturday September 28 is Good Neighbor Day?

Here’s the single best thing you can do to celebrate:

Power down all your devices, leave them in your house, and step outside to say “hi” to your neighbors.

In person.

Technology makes it easy to connect online, but our goal is to connect in real life.

Amy Lively, How to Love Your Neighbor Without Being Weird

As Amy Lively states it so well, “God has carefully placed us in our neighborhoods. He planned your neighborhood long before your Homeowner’s Association Handbook or your town’s zoning committee. He planted you on your street, on your block, in your house for a specific reason, which is explained here:

From one man he made all the people of the world. Now they live all over the earth. He decided exactly when they should live. And he decided exactly where they should live. God did this so people would seek him. Then perhaps they would reach out for him and find him. They would find him even through he is not far from any of us.

Acts 17:26-27, NIrV

The reason God is not far from our neighbors is that He is in each one of us. Each of us will have to stand before Him and tell Him how we loved our neighbors.

Jesus loves your neighbors.

He stepped down from heaven to save them.

All you have to do is walk across the street to meet them.

Inspired by and adapted from How to Love Your Neighbor Without Being Weird, by Amy Lively

Leave a comment