The People God Puts in Front of You

The year was 386 AD and a man in his 30s had just come to Christ. After spending much of his early life studying philosophy and rhetoric, he met someone along his way that preached the name of Jesus week after week. The cynical yet curious man couldn’t help but feel drawn in by the words and truth being preached. He just wasn’t willing to surrender his habits and ambitions that seemed to have a hold on him. One day, he felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit to “take up and read” the scripture in Romans 13. He read these words encouraging him to walk in the light of Jesus, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Finally, convicted to surrender his life and ways to Jesus, Augustine (later became St. Augustine of Hippo) embraced him as his savior and Lord.

Augustine was baptized by that faithful preacher, named Ambrose, and went on to live a life devoted to Christ. He penned the deep and vast words of Confessions, On Christian Doctrine, and The City of God. All classic works written just a few hundred years after Jesus walked the earth.

There’s a little quote I have on my desk that comes out of his book On Christian Doctrine in a chapter titled, “How We Are to Decide Who to Aid.” It’s an interesting thought and marries the concepts of God’s sovereignty, our call to love our neighbors as ourselves, and the imago dei - “image of God” - that exists within every human being. Here’s what it says:

“…Further, all men are to be loved equally. But since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special regard to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstance, are brought into closer connection with you.”

Have you ever experienced those holy spirit moments before? I’m talking about the moments where God connects you to someone in the right place at the right time, for such a time as that. So perfect it just about takes your breath away. It’s how He works and so we should be available to those incredible moments with people in our lives. But there’s also something simple about the concept of loving our neighbors. Yes, the ones who live around you, the one who works next to your office, the one who walks their dog in the same place as you…your actual physical neighbors. Be available to them too. God knows what he’s doing, and he’s always divinely at work through what might seem like “accidents of time, or place, or circumstance” but have all the markings of the intentional and loving God.

Galatians 6:9-10 says, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”