1 Peter 4:8-10 "Above all keep loving one another earnestly, since
love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without
grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good
stewards of God's varied grace."
I'm going to be honest here and admit that I struggle with
hospitality. To me it represents the
core of what a woman should be and I just don't have that gift. Effortless
entertaining is just not my thing despite the fact that my mom was really good
at it. Sadly, the gene just didn't get transferred. I'm the
person who thinks I have all the ingredients for the recipe and then somehow at
the last minute realize that I am one ingredient short or I'm cooking something
I have cooked numerous times before only to get confused at the last minute and
skip a step rendering the recipe a failure. I blame part of my problem on my
refusal in elementary school to memorize the cooking measurements. Who knew those pesky little conversions would
be so important later on?
Regardless of my failings in math, God has been working in
my heart in the area of hospitality. Specifically, He has been convicting me in
the area of loving my neighbors. I struggled with this when I realized that I
didn't even know them. This fact is somewhat justified by the neighborhood in
which we live. Everyone lives on at least three acres that are primarily
wooded. I literally have not seen my next door neighbor in five years. I recently
found out one of the houses on my street sat empty for two years and I didn't
even notice. All that changed the day that my then two year old locked me out
of the house while I was bringing in groceries forcing me to have to meet the
neighbor across the street so that I could ask to use their phone.
Needless to say, a special
friendship with that neighbor was quickly formed and we discussed the need to
get to know our other neighbors. After
finding out she was a party planner, it was quickly decided that we needed to
have a block party for the neighbors on our street. With
her making a living out of hospitality,
I knew she would be able to teach this severely lacking student a thing
or two. Being an English teacher in my
previous life, I wrote up the invitations and she had them printed using her
connections as a party planner. A week later we handed out the invitations
together by going door to door. I coordinated the food being brought and she
did the running around buying the paper goods and other supplies. It ended up
being a partnership that only God could
have orchestrated.
That afternoon after the block party ended, I remember going home with a huge smile
filling my face. My spirit was full from
connecting with others. My belly was full from good food shared. My hands were
full of food that neighbors had insisted I take in return for planning the
block party for them. My heart was full from all the thank you's and kind words
I unexpectedly received. I was so
thankful that I listened to God's voice and more importantly that I was obedient
in allowing myself to be used as an instrument of hospitality which for me
represented taking a scary plunge into the unknown. A verse about Jesus coming to give life to the
fullest ran across my mind as I reluctantly walked home and maybe in a small
way, this is exactly what He meant.
