Re-appraising our relationships

The other evening we had an interesting conversation about the apathy of people in our community to become involved in a visit to our Venda brothers and sisters. Why is it so difficult for us? We briefly explored some of the reasons.

My fiance remarked that it is strikingly easy to make these sacrifices to people we know. Why would we take leave and spend days on the road to be with family for a short vaction. We would easily sarifice a Saterday-morning to assist in a family affair. But we won't drive 400 km's to visit friends from another ethnic group and in a different socio-economic class. We find it easy to make similar sacrifices to close family and friends as to others where it is almost unbearable.

I was just reminded of Jesus' words "these are my brothers, these are my mother". I also think about "neigbor". How can we reach a point where, what comes natural to close fiends also becomes natural for others? Jesus showed us. It lies within the complete reappraisal of our relationships. "David, you are my brother". We don't like to do this. We're afraid our emotional resources will run dry. We opt for social policies of exclusion.