Who is your neighbor?

"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who
fell into the hands of robbers?" The expert in the law replied,
"The one who had mercy on him." Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

(Luke 10:36-37)

I just returned from church where today's sermon was about loving your neighbor. Each time I heard the story of the Good Samaritan, I often went away with the impression that the priest and the Levite were hypocrites since they weren't willing to walk the talk by helping the injured man who would have made them unclean. Today, a new dimension to the story was impressed upon me.

Many students, myself included, are filled with youthful idealism that spurs them to go out and change the world. Last week, I wrote a post about being a social entrepreneur, and in many ways, I would say that alot of people wouldn't mind making a career out of doing world-changing work even if it does not pay so well. The small paycheck is made all the more bearable as long as you feel that what you do is making a huge difference in the world. Now I am all for big ideas and grand ambitions (which certainly are in short supply nowadays), but having said that, it is easy to get swept up with the thrill of fighting for world peace and forget about the needs of your immediate community.

In Singapore, our impression of charity work is writing a check, or perhaps an annual visit to the senior citizens' home with your [insert organization]. This is partly because we tend to see "needs" in economic terms. So as long as we don't see people sleeping on the streets all is well in society. However, as my pastor pointed out, spiritual needs are just as important, if not more, as material needs. We like to focus on economic needs because it seems easy to address. Non-economic needs require much more commitment, time and emotional investment. You can't pull a hit-and-run as a mentor to troubled kids, neither can you do so if you want to reach out to the old folks to live by themselves in one-bedroom apartments. These forms of service aren't appealing coz they aren't glamorous and "world-changing".

Like the priest and the Levite, I have less of a problem with trying to save the world than I do with consistently commiting one evening a week to volunteer somewhere. The latter just doesn't sound very exciting. But if we are to believe Mother Teresa, "In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love."