LET ME ask you this question: how many times have you seen something going on either on your street as you’ve been driving or something near your workplace and your first thoughts were “I better stay out of it and mind my own business?” 

The culture of minding our business is so alive and strong in our cities. We all live our lives not wanting to judge others or be judged. “Don’t judge me” is the new phrase that falls off the tongue with alarming alacrity.

We see other people’s children acting up and our first thought of correcting them is nudged out of the way by a second thought of “mind your own” fearing the child or worse still, his or her parents telling you it’s none of your business.

Here’s another question: have you noticed how the spirit of competition has become so strong that even in our communities we have neglected lifting up each other. We are so busy looking on reality TV and social media at the successes of others wishing it was us, longing for when it will be our time and turn so much that we forget to stop and applaud those who among us have fought through great adversity. 

We have missed the opportunity to applaud our children as they get a grade that may not be A* but certainly is a long way from where they started. We’ve not stopped to applaud the man collecting the rubbish on our streets because we are so fixated on the star footballer who makes millions of pounds a year as we dream of how we would spend that money if it was us making that type of money. 

We forget to applaud the young man who is bringing up his family in a world where they say people like him neglect families. We’ve missed the opportunity to applaud the sister who is bravely fighting off cancer and other ailments because we’re very busy minding our own business.

I wonder as a community would we consider these words from the Bible, the book of Hebrews Chapter 10 Verse 24. The voice version says “Let us consider how to inspire each other to greater love and to righteous deeds, not forgetting meeting together as a community as some have forgotten but encouraging each other daily.”

So here’s a challenge to us – Covid has meant that we have got very comfortable with just us and our own pod, our own friends, our own space. Yes the world is opening up, yes people are going out but actually in our minds we have so enjoyed being by ourselves and not having to spend energy on anybody else. 

Would you make up your mind today to find five people that you may not have done this with before or in a long time? Find ways to inspire them to greater love and to righteous deeds, inspire them to do better, encourage them for what they’ve done well – find them, talk to them, encourage them. 

Also can I challenge you like the book says, not to forget gathering as a community whether it’s the checker club or the chess club or the bingo club or the church? Whichever group you can plug into, talk to our brothers and sisters, link up with our brothers and sisters, let’s talk to each other, let’s love each other, let’s build each other up, let’s inspire each other. Remember people don’t know how much you know till they know how much you care.

Muyiwa Olarewaju OBE is Station Director at Premier Gospel Radio, a TV & Radio Broadcaster, and Principal of gospel group Muyiwa & Riversongz