Where I live I always try to get along well with my neighbours. I am always of the belief that its always good to have friends. Whenever I am going out and I see them on the road, I always try to be mannerly and give them the utmost respect by telling them good morning or good evening as the case may be. There are even times like on weekends when I go to buy my newspapers that I would pass by some of them to see if they would want a newspaper too. So its safe to say that I have a good relationship with them. There is a particular elderly neighbour though who I have known since I was a child. Although I respect him a lot like I do all my other neighbours, lately he is getting on my nerves. You see my neighbor Mr. C belongs to a certain religious faith. The church I attend is just opposite his apartment. I have been attending that church for four years and I am quite happy to go there. But in recent times Mr. C has taken it upon himself to "teach me the truth." There was this incident back in August when, after I purchased a newspaper for Mr. C, he proceeded to ask me questions about where do good people go to when they die.
I knew exactly where he was coming from with this and felt the urge to tell him that I was not interested in having a religious discussion, still, I fell for the bait and answered, "Heaven." He then proceeded to tell me to read a particular verse from the bible when I go home which apparently debunks that belief. I didn't take him on. "Why should I?" I said to myself. "Do I tell him or any of his family when and how to read the bible?" I went home with the belief that he would have probably forgotten about it and I left it as that. Boy was I wrong. For the next couple of weeks whenever he saw me on the road he would consistently ask me if I had read the verse. I would promptly reply, "No." What got me pissed off one day was when he told me that I was "playing with my salvation." I thought to myself to tell him off right there and then.
It then dawned on me, "Is this the way Christians should behave?" "Arguing over who can "better interpret" the Bible?" Although I really felt tempted to give him a good piece of my mind. But then again don't we ask God so often in the ever popular "Our Father" prayer to "lead us not into temptation?" There was another time when his tone towards me became quite aggressive. He saw me in the streets and began to shout at me in a loud, provoking tone if I had finally read the particular Bible verse. I kindly responded once more with a "No." He again responded with his sarcastic "play with my salvation" comment. "Okay," was my sarcastic response. Now a lot of you may be saying that my response wasn't all that appropriate either, but try walking the streets minding your own business and your neighbor who is much older than you and whom you would think is mature, keeps on harassing you. I have to admit that I was tempted to tell him that God was punishing him for being so provoking because he has severe problems with his knees and moves with the aid of a walking-stick.
Then when I thought about it, it would have really been futile. After all, doesn't the Bible say in Proverbs 15:1 that,"A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger?"So if I were to lower my standards to insult him, it really won't make me any better than him would it? It would be rather immature of me. So I have made up my mind from now that I would just continue to keep my calm and respond appropriately to Mr. C according to what is said in Proverbs. Either that or I would just not respond at all. If he gets insulting and sarcastic, I'll just smile and walk away. For although he is older than me and physically bigger, I can DEFINITELY be bigger than him when the time arises. What Mr. C fails to realize is that although he may be more biblically versed than I am, the God we both serve is bigger than us and we'll both have to answer to him one day. Like it or not.
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