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I love ministry.
I love writing Echoes of Grace.
I love speaking when God opens those doors.
I love connecting with friends, in person or by phone.
I love hospitality.

Those words recorded in my journal a few weeks back are all true, I think.
But I choked on that last love. Do I really love hospitality?

It sounds like you’re not excited about this brunch. My sister’s words when I was telling her about the brunch I was planning. You’re right. I’m not. She heard it in my voice.

But I love hospitality, don’t I? And isn’t hospitality biblical?

“Do not neglect to show hospitality …”
Hebrews 13:2
“Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.”
I Peter 4:9
“Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”
Romans 12:13

Qualifications for the overseers, the shepherds, and widows all include hospitality in their lists. I Timothy 3:2; I Timothy 5:10; Titus 1:7

Loving hospitality is loving God’s word. I was feeling convicted!

I have nice things and I enjoy using them. Why was I struggling this time?

“Because of the LORD’S great love we not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22, 23 NIV

I was feeling consumed! Can something I love, or think I love, be all-consuming?

It had been a full Advent and Christmas season. There had been multiple opportunities for hospitality. I loved each one. And, I admit I was tired. I was feeling consumed, spent, used up.

True; but why? I kept pondering my conundrum.

The Merriam Webster dictionary says that hospitality is the friendly and generous reception of guests. And the distinctiveness of Christian hospitality is it’s about the guests; hospitality is other centered; hospitality is central to the gospel.

While hospitality is other centered, it also does not belittle the host; hospitality does not take away from who God created me to be.

But I needed a shift in my thinking.

Hospitality is not about creating a 5-star presentation; it’s about welcoming guests!

I love setting a nice table. But I began to realize I was allowing the presentation to eclipse the very reason for hospitality.

Being Intentional (my word for 2025)
led me to four lessons I need to practice relating to hospitality.

1. Capacity. Perhaps four major opportunities for hospitality in one month is too much in this chapter of my life. I allowed myself to be consumed. Sometimes I should intentionally say “no”.

2. “Because of the LORD’S great love…” Those six words at the beginning of Lamentations 3:22 were convicting. I intentionally review God’s love for me at the beginning of my devotional time daily; that is normally. I had let that habit slip in the busyness of the season. My bad!

3. The opposite of being consumed is being safe-guarded, being sustained. I was looking for my sustenance from others instead of hospitality being given to others. I need to intentionally remind myself of the reasons for hospitality.

4. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God …” James 1:5. I must intentionally ask God for his wisdom. Is this opportunity for hospitality in your will?

“the church, of which I became a minister
according to the stewardship from God
that was given to me for you…”
Colossians 1:25. (italics & underlines mine)

God has given me a stewardship, and that stewardship is for the benefit of others. God has entrusted something to me … enjoying hospitality … to invest in others.

Loving hospitality is who I am. Practicing hospitality is living out my creation. But because of my lack of intentionality, my focus was blurred.

Biblical hospitality roots out self-centeredness, deepens fellowship with others, and honors God.

My desire is to be intentional and hospitable while remembering those four lessons.

 

Copyright: Sue Tell, January 2025