"Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there..."

Extreme.Winter. Conference. 2010.
Oh my goodness. It was one of the best trips I've been on. No lie! It was SO much fun! From the bus ride to the concerts and speakers each day, it was awesome! Tenth Avenue North was good, but it wasn't exactly what I expected. They are still hands down my favorite though!!!! Skillet, Newsboys, and MercyMe were all really fun to watch, and I loved Unhindered! It was such an amazing experience. The speakers were awesome too! My favorite was Tony Nolan though. He was so passionate for what he's talking about and it really came across in what he was saying. He's VERY energetic and I couldn't help but pay attention to everything he said. My friend, Tate, and I split the cost of Tony Nolan's book and are going to share it. It's really good! I'm on Chapter 3 and I love it! Something one of the chapters was talking about was being a good neighbor. Most of us have all heard the story of the good Samaritan. (Luke 10: 27-35) I went back and read it while I was reading this particular chapter and the whole time I had the stupid commercial in my head "Like a good neighbor, state farm is there!" Do you know which ones I'm talking about? Like a piano falls from the sky on this dude's car and his friend says "Man, that stinks!" but the dude laughs and says "No worries! Watch this...'Like a good neighbor State Farm is there!' then a lady in a business suit pops up and begins to talk about how State Farm can fix it and you save on insurance. Then the friend is like "Cool! Let me try it! 'Like a good neighbor state farm is there...with a jacuzzi!' It's a retarded commercial, but that's what was going through my head.
They say that State Farm is "...like a good neighbor..." What is a good neighbor? Is it someone who saves you money on car insurance? Someone you can run down the street to borrow 2 eggs from? I think that a good neighbor is someone that places your needs above his or her own. Like the Samaritan. He could've passed the dude by like the two before him did, but he didn't. He went way out of the way to make sure he could help in every way that he could.
 I didn't comprehend this really until now, but Jesus was asked in Luke by the man "who exacly is my neighbor?" and Jesus (through a parable) basically said everyone.
Leviticus 19:18 says "...love your neighbor as yourself..." It didn't hit me until on this trip but if I treated my neighbors (the people surrounding me) the same way I loved Melissa Jennings then wouldn't I have a much better chance of making an impact on someone's life for Christ? If one of our goals as Christians is to bring glory to God and to spread the love of Christ couldn't we do it much better if we truly loved the people around us?
Now, that's far easier said than done. I am definitely not saying it's something easy to do. But shouldn't we at least try? I am extremely guilty of "judging books by their cover" if someone looks like they are stuck-up, mean, and a non christian person I definitely try to avoid them and do something else. People are broken and it makes me so sad to think that they are avoiding the church and don't want anything to do with it because the experiance they've had with Christians and churches have probably been bad. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm rambling, but I can't figure out how to edit it and make it sound right. lol =)
I had so much fun on this trip! =) I love Gatlinburg! It's so pretty!!! <3 I only slipped and fell on the ice once. Hahaha it didn't hurt too bad. I do have a bruise on my leg though... lol
We have a New Year's Eve lock in tonight at church!!! I'm so excited about it!!!!!!!!!!!