The Monkey and the Fish

I read the Monkey and the Fish by David Gibbons yesterday as part of my research. I found Gibbons' thoughts to be important, and at times incredibly convicting.

The title of the book comes from an Eastern parable:

A typhoon stranded a monkey on the island. In a protected place on the shore, while waiting for the raging waters to recede, he spotted a fish swimming against the current. It seemed to the monkey resolved to help the fish. A tree leaned precariously over the spot where the fish seemed to be struggling. At considerable risk to himself, the monkey moved far out on a limb, reached down, and snatched the fish from the waters. Scurrying back to the safety of his shelter, he carefully laid the fish on dry ground. For a few moments, the fish showed excitement but soon settled into a peaceful rest. 

Get it? The fish died.

So why is this important?

The monkey saw that the fish was struggling and needed help. In this, Mr. Monkey was correct. However, the monkey didn't know about the fish well enough to know how to help him. The monkey probably thought, 'hmm, this fish is having a hard time in the water. If I were having a hard time in the water, I'd want to get out'. But that wasn't the fish's problem. He can't survive on the dry ground like the monkey can! So even though the monkey wanted to help, he couldn't, and in fact caused great harm to his friend the fish.

This concept is so key for us to get through our thick skulls. I cannot love my neighbor if I do not know my neighbor. If I do not know my neighbor, I only have what I know.

It is not helpful if I notice someone is having a rough day and I send them a Bible verse text if they don't believe in the God of the Bible. This may actually cause further duress and frustration, and they will likely grow annoyed with me. While that would help me, and would be something I appreciate, it is not a one-size-fits-all way to love your neighbor.

One of the most convicting questions in this book was a suggestion for churches to ask their neighbors - organizations, groups of people - around them to see how they felt the church was doing in loving and serving them. Yikes! I can only imagine some of the answers we might get.

I'll share a few quotes from Gibbons himself now -

"Loving the other can be messy, ugly, unnatural, and perhaps not fun, but this is the set of clothes we all have been called to wear. And one set fits all who know Jesus"

"The second most important commandment is all about loving people we don't understand, whom maybe even the community we live in doesn't like, maybe even hates, or at the least disregards or writes off"

"Embracing a life of discomfort means venturing into places we don't feel like going, doing things we don't wish to do, being with people we don't feel comfortable being with, loving them, helping them - all of which demonstrates a not-of-this-world brand of love that is irresistible to all people in all places"

These statements were running through my brain as I ran yesterday afternoon (43 degrees in January!). It was hard, I'm not going to lie. It's easy to love people who are like us, who are near to us, whom we can understand, who are nice to us. How do we do when that's not the case?

That's when we have to decide, does the commandment to love my neighbor apply to me, or not?