阅读经文 

一天早晨，我妻子感到很不舒服，多发性硬化症带来的可怕后果严重损害了她的健康，这是不容忽略的事实，她感到被疾病的沉重担子压伤了。我们被安排住在尼日利亚的北部，这里的邻居都很友善，富于爱心，我们感受到他们的关怀。

那天早上，邻居中有两位关心Thelma（西尔玛）的妇女来探访她。第一个到来的邻居看到她那时很难受，Thelma实在无法掩饰她的挣扎；她们倾谈时，泪水充满了她的眼眶，最后她大声哭起来。这邻居有点不知所措，看到Thelma的眼泪，她立刻好意相劝：“不要哭，Thelma，不要哭。”Thelma于是便勉强忍住她的啜泣。

那邻居离去后不久，另一位关心她的邻居也来了，她也看到Thelma那天早晨很难受。Thelma可能已经忍住了眼泪，但是泪痕仍在，而泪水又再次从眼中涌出来。邻居看见她的泪水，便伸出她的膀臂围绕着我妻子的肩头，并且这样说：“放声哭吧Thelma，只管放声哭。”

Thelma向我讲述她的经历时，我知道她感到谁的反应对她有帮助，这给我上了很好的一课。

正如保罗在罗马书第十二章所说的，我们可以与喜乐的人同乐，但我们也可以与哀哭的人同哭的。这才是真正的关心，是我们尝试做一个好邻居时要做的——就是神吩咐和帮助我们去做的那种邻居。

It had been a difficult morning for my wife. The dreadful, disabling effects of her multiple sclerosis were too real to deny. She felt the bruising weight of it all. We lived with good, caring neighbors in our assigned location in northern Nigeria. They showed that they cared.

That morning two of the neighbor women kindly checked in on Thelma. The first neighbor who came saw that it was a difficult day for her. Thelma couldn't conceal her struggle. As they talked, tears welled up; they erupted into open crying. Quickly and with obvious discomfort, the well-meaning neighbor responded to her tears with the words, "Don't cry, Thelma; don't cry." Thelma forced herself to stifle her sobs.

Shortly after that neighbor left, a second kind neighbor came. She also observed that it was a difficult morning for Thelma. The tears may have been choked back, but they were still there, and they rose again. The neighbor saw them, and, wrapping her arm around my wife's shoulder, she said, "Cry, Thelma; just cry."

As Thelma described the experience to me, I knew what she found helpful. It was a good lesson for me.

Just as Paul wrote in Romans 12, we can rejoice with those who rejoice, but we can also weep with those who weep. That's real caring as we try to be a neighbor—the kind God wants and enables us to be.