Fencing

Fencing

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:30-31

            These days we are somewhat purposefully, and somewhat inadvertently living out Proverb 24:27 “Put your outdoor work in order and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.” We just put in a wonderful raised bed garden this spring. That was purposefully done. The 20-year-old fence you see falling down in the picture is our inadvertent project. It came down in one of the last big Santa Ana-like windstorms. As I type, we have a 3-man team jack hammering-out concrete post slugs, hauling and installing cedar planks, nailing, and constructing new fence to replace the falling and failing sections.

            In the run up to getting this project done, I had to contact the neighbors on two sides of us, and came to find out that one of our neighbors had more fencing on the other side of their property that was also falling down and in need of repair. The domino effect of the wind blowing down our fence, turned into a 5-family neighborhood project to repair most of the fences on our block. In the process of negotiating which fence contractor to chose, which style of fence to agree upon, what timeline for repairs to settle for, we have had way more interaction with this group of neighbors in the last two months than we have in most of the last 2 years we have been here, and we have met neighbors up the block that we never knew before. All of this back and forth in decision-making with our neighbors brought us a little closer together, a little more comfortable chatting and reaching out to each other. It also had me thinking on the ways I needed to love my neighbor as myself during the planning phase.

             All that was fine and good. Then, last Thursday, the fences between us and two neighboring yards came down. We suddenly had an “open-concept” feeling to our backyard - vulnerable, open, free, seen, uncovered, naked yards and gardens. The trees poke over the fence all the time, but our zinnias were showing! It’s a little unnerving how self-conscious I can feel just about our personal backyard space. Everybody who wants to see the front yard can come on by anytime, and we have friends and family who come over to the backyard when invited. But, next door neighbors with full, open, 24-hour access to our space??!! I can’t tell you how much I really want those fences back up. It was a shocker to realize that we were going to have to live with the fences open and our yard exposed all weekend. I emailed the contractor in a little bit of a panic Friday afternoon when, after being gone on field trip with my son’s class most of the day, I saw that the fences were not up by the end of the workday Friday. The contractor reassured me that all was going as smoothly as he had expected, especially given the unusual heat we have been experiencing. I swore in my heart to double and triple the amount of Gatorade and water I was offering our 3-man team, to spur them on to a fast finish here. We like to sit in bathrobes and slippers on our back porch weekend mornings, and sometimes on nice evenings too. I’m sure the neighbors understand, and couldn’t really give a hoot about my big fuzzy bathrobe. But I care. I like my privacy. I like my personal space. I don’t really want to have to pay any attention to my neighbor when I am drinking my coffee and reposing on my back porch in the morning. I don’t really want to be open, vulnerable, and in the position to have to forgive what I do, or what they do, and care about them that much. And yet…

            Holy Spirit, I know that loving my neighbor as myself is not meant to be a comfortable commandment, but a windstorm of ego-crushing, fence-breaking practices. As much as I want these wooden fences put back up quickly, Lord, keep working on my heart to open it to my neighbors further, make it as permeable as you need it, so that I can better live your commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Thank you for breaking down these fences and bringing together these neighbors with the power of Your windstorms. Help our neighborhood continue to grow in good friendships and comfortable alliances enabling us all to grow the close support needed to grow healthy families, healthy children, and healthy homes in this neighborhood for many years to come. Amen.