"Practicing" Hospitality

The sweetest thank you card came in the mail recently. It is always a blessing to receive handwritten notes with kind words!  However, the last sentence made me totally laugh out loud and praise Jesus at the same time!  "You do everything with grace and ease." were the beautiful words.  This was sent as a result of a Sunday lunch. 

I have to tell you about this lunch.  We invited some out of town guests over for Sunday lunch.  The weather forecast was for heavy rain and our guests were eager to eat and travel home quickly. The morning was spent preparing as much of the meal as possible, then we headed to church.  As church ended, the skies poured down rain!  Attempts to get home quickly vanished.  Our dear guests arrived at our home before we did and we arrived home wet, late with a few last minute food preparations to finish. 

Normally, this would have been a hospitality nightmare....except for grace.  Through the years God has worked in my heart to embrace guests and serving in my home. It begins with understanding the difference between entertaining and hospitality.  For years I 'entertained', making sure the house was spotless, exhausting myself over menus and details, hollering at the kids for bringing any dirt in the house. Generally making the family miserable, so we could bring others into our home. 

Hospitality is different. It shifts the focus from self to others.  Biblical hospitality offers our best to God first, understanding that our best to others will then fall into place. It transforms our selfish motives and elevates our guest. When the hospitable hostess swings wide the door, all her attention focuses outward: “You’re here! I’ve been waiting for you. No one is more important today than you, and I’m thrilled you’ve come.” The posture we assume in hospitality is one that bends low, generously offering our heart to another despite whatever interruption to our own plans or comfort. Extending hospitality is about freely giving of ourselves while granting others the freedom to be themselves. Shifting our focus from us to them removes all unnecessary expectations. 

For the Christian, practicing hospitality shouldn’t be something we just check off of our “holiness” list or something that we do one time and then feel like we have done our part. Hospitality is a lifestyle that we should embrace. It should become so much a part of us that it becomes one of our characteristics.  Of course, this takes practice and often learning from our mistakes.  But most of all it comes from the heart. 

It’s about opening your heart to others by opening your home to them. It’s about serving without grumbling. It’s about consistently putting others’ needs before your own. 

Hospitality is about developing an inner attitude that makes both physical and “heart” space for others.  Hospitality is showing those you serve, God’s heart. It is demonstrating His generosity, love, service, and provision. It is also showing our willingness to trust and submit to God’s authority.  It is a lot to learn and a beautiful grace to constantly grow in.

So, back to that Sunday lunch....with the heart attitude of blessing our guests and enjoying the precious time with them, it created a beautiful time of fellowship in spite of all the obstacles.  Food, laughter and memories flowed freely and the 'grace and ease' of Jesus flowed as well.