1000 Musings

Hospitality

I have been enjoying my extra free time since graduation, especially all the extra reading I get to enjoy.  My time management is not perfect, but that's a whole different pickle to chomp


This blog is about hospitality misconceptions, my misconceptions
Many times I have heard the Martha and Mary story and even written college papers about the very passage. On one then occasion I have envisioned Martha scolding Mary and Mary gearing up for the cat fight
But somehow I managed to completely miss the real point


Here are a few snippets from a recent blog post I read that I will be mulling over the next few weeks


It [hospitality] is a demonstration of the gospel, a visual picture of God’s love, a working out of His love in and through our lives


When we focus on the details instead of the heart of it’s purpose, we have started focusing on ourselves


A lifestyle of hospitality is not just something we can tack on our our overly busy schedules


It’s not an optional activity. It’s what our purpose is on this earth – to be ministers of the gospel


Too often I find my self equating hospitatlity to clean bed linens, fresh towels, a home-cooked meal.  I can get so excited at the thought of using the resources God has given Dyl and I to serve others and make them feel at home...yay house guests!  But how exactly am I serving them?  Physically, yes.  Emotionally, probably yes.  Spiritually, umm...problem!


And this is only the beginning of the story.  Hospitality should seep into the cracks of our lives.  Every small aspect of life should breathe what the Lord has so graciously saved us from and be manifested into acts of hospitatlity. 


1 John 3:17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?


Hebrews 13:16, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.


Luke 6:38 Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.

This is our first house the Lord graciously provided for the first two weeks of our marriage

The house really was a blessing.  We had prayed for 6 months and the house just showed up one day in my email box.  Perfect.
Well...until we arrived right after the wedding.  The house was old, smelly, very dirty (we were subleasing so no one had to clean up before we arrived...bad idea!).  At first, I was a little embarrassed.  How was I supposed to be hospitable to guests when I could even stand my own home? This was not the house I had dreamed of since I was five...no picket fence...but it was white...does that count?

You can see where my thinking went astray
The Lord convicted me
I soon fell in love with our small, broken down house.  Even when we lived there with no gas or electricity the last week and we had to move out, it was still a blessing.