A True Perspective Change on Hospitality

A True Perspective Change on Hospitality Today I was thinking about the highs and lows of opening up your home and giving. The “highs” are the joys of preparation, decoration, seeing the joy in people’s faces as they find the candles lit and fresh flowers on the table, or bite into a simple though luscious meal you have prepared for the them; the sound of laughter and the good conversation and sharing of life that reverberates in your soul after they’ve gone. These are some of the highs of hospitality in the home. Ah, but let’s be REAL. These highs have a counterpart. The “lows” of entertaining and opening your home and preparing a place for others are genuine. There is the mental and physical effort that goes into preparation and clean up the weariness and tiredness that may linger when everyone is gone; the possibility that your guests don’t seem to notice what you’ve gone through in all of this. But then there is the grand-daddy of them all –like nails on the chalkboard of our fleshly nature -- we want someone to do for us what we have done for them!! The fact of the matter is very few people will have us over in return. It may be as low as 1 out of 20 who will have us for dinner after we have them. In fact, I would venture to say it is even much less. Does it sound like I am whining? I admit, in years past, after everyone had gone and I was at the sink at 11:00pm doing the dinner dishes….I found myself whining. But, over the years, I have found there’s a different place in God. The etiquette books may say, “When someone has you over, you should have them back.” I often have people ask me why no one seems to reciprocate on their dinner invitations. Why when they have given out they find they are the ones always giving again. The greater reality is all of these natural feelings get at the heart of the difference between godly hospitality and worldly entertaining. The hard truth of hospitality is that few will return the invitation. So how do we keep inviting people in without the encouragement of being invited back? How do we keep giving when we don’t feel appreciated? Does it really matter? By developing God’s perspective for hospitality we can change the world in which we find ourselves. We can live beyond our limited expections. Anyone can entertain with a few tips from Mom or Grandma, the average etiquette book and a half-way decent cookbook, or by watching all those amazing cooking shows! Lifegiving hospitality may involve good books and role models, but it starts with one book – God’s Word – and a work of the Spirit in our hearts. The greatest reality of all is that we are not having people over to be invited back. We are having them over to give them a message about their value. In worldly entertaining it is easy to trumpet our own sense of worth. In godly hospitality, it is always about our guests – how can they be loved, ministered to, encouraged, enriched and refreshed while they are in our homes. It is the miracle of a perspective change. Seeing differently. Realizing it is not about us…performance or perfection…it is about loving others with our lives.