From the Pastor’s Desk – September 2022
We took an important step yesterday in “stepping up” our Christian hospitality efforts. This is the focus of this writing.
Christian hospitality is an expression of God’s love and living out our call to, “Love our neighbor as ourselves” (Mt 22:39). Christian hospitality is the cycle of both receiving God’s love and giving God’s love. Thinking of it in this way, how hospitable you are has everything to do with how much of God’s love you allow into your heart.
My initial understanding of hospitality was focused on the giving part of the cycle, and the external expressions of giving. I grew up on a farm where most of my aunts and uncles had farms within 5 miles from us. We gathered together at the drop of a hat. We celebrated everyone’s birthday, anniversary etc… When the rural electricity was down, it affected all of us, sometimes for days. What would we do? We all emptied out our freezers and had a giant family barbeque. All of these gatherings centered around family and food. These gatherings are my most treasured times.
As an adult, I hosted many gatherings of family and friends, yet I see now that my focus was on the externals of giving. Hospitality meant preparing my house for large gatherings (and making sure it was perfectly clean), cooking (and stressing over whether my food would taste perfect). Many times I did way more than necessary, to the point of exhaustion and resentment. I love welcoming people, yet I would become overly consumed thinking of every detail. As a result, I exhausted myself and took it out on my family. Frustrated with my family for not helping as much as I needed them to a few hours before a gathering became part of the preparation tradition I am not so proud of.
I hosted a lot of special times yet something was missing for me. All my giving energy was focused on the externals: the food, the table, the clean house. No time was devoted connecting within and allowing God’s love to fuel my giving.
When I began learning about Christian hospitality, I found a whole new way to be hospitable. I grew to see that I needed to begin with myself. I needed to clean my own inner home and learn to be hospitable to Christ within me before being hospitable to anyone else. I had been constantly depleting myself and was not allowing God’s love to fuel my service towards others. As a result, there was always a limit to how much I could give. There was always a point where I became frustrated, resentful, and exhausted and sometimes getting sick. I desperately needed to allow for an inward flow of love to fuel the outward flow of giving.
Allowing for a more hospitable place within my inner home meant becoming better at listening to my limits and setting boundaries with myself and others. Allowing time for quiet reflection and prayer became more of a consistent presence in my life. Caring less about perfection and more about connection put me in a different space when welcoming people. The giving, serving, and welcoming cycle comes from a more loving place within me. I try to focus on connecting with Christ within me so I can be present to Christ in the other.
The more you allow for a hospitable place for Christ within you, the more compassionate and loving you will be with others. As you give much more attention to your inward flow of love, you will find there is more of an outward flow toward others – more love, compassion, and giving – without much effort. More time nurturing your heart translates into more energy for others. You will have a wider container to hold others’ needs.
Reflect & Share
As you reflect on current events in this church, and move forward during this anniversary year, take some time to reflect on your hospitable heart.
What have you noticed about the events and experiences you have gone back to? Are you noticing in-person events can be extra tiring after not experiencing them for so long? Are you being kind to yourself – setting boundaries and being aware of what you need as you get into a busier season?
How are you allowing for a hospitable heart to others? How are you making room in your heart for those you disagree with? How can you extend a helping hand to those who need help this season?