Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 1 Peter 4:9
“Hospitality makes anxious disciples into powerful witnesses, makes suspicious owners into generous givers, and makes closed-minded sectarians into interested recipients of new ideas and insights…Hospitality is the ability to pay attention to the guest. This is very difficult, since we are preoccupied with our own needs, worries and tensions, which prevent us from taking distance from ourselves in order to pay attention to others…
This experience tells us that we can only love because we are born out of love, that we can only give because our life is a gift, and that we can only make others free because we are set free by Him whose heart is greater than ours. When we have found the anchor places for our lives in our own center, we can be free to let others enter into the space created for them…without fear. Then our presence is no longer threatening and demanding but inviting and liberating.”
Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) in The Wounded Healer: Ministry in Contemporary Society (New York: Image, 1979) 89, 91-92.
One of the greatest forms of generosity is hospitality toward others, or more precisely, paying attention to those who enter our path, our space, and our schedule. I have much room for growth in this area and have learned much from watching my wife.
I have also learned much from Nouwen on this. We must be anchored in Christ to be hospitable. That means we first must know that we are loved, that every day is a gift, and that we are set free by living in the truth, in order to love, give, and set others free.
When we extend hospitality to others, God transforms us into powerful witnesses, generous givers, and interested recipients! If you want to grow in hospitality, anchor to Christ, take distance from yourself, pay attention to others, and see what happens.