Be With God
We cannot offer what we have not received. Hospitality involves many things, but it is wholly dependent on one thing: being with God.
I believe that hospitality reflects the hospitable heart of God. The reason I take such a strong stance against hospitality being equated to entertainment (as it commonly is in the home, DIY and interior design world) is because I am fully convinced that hospitality is about so much more than entertainment and reveals many beautiful attributes of God, our Creator. Hospitality is rich and deep and prioritizes serving. It centers relationship and generosity. It is born out of Love.
This is a far more abundant view of hospitality that is founded on the belief that God is the originator of Hospitality. God is the Most Hospitable One. We see the ultimate example of this in Jesus, God’s Son, who is the perfect embodiment of hospitality. I’ll address that more in the future, but for now I want to emphasize that the characteristics of hospitality already named - service, generosity, relationship, love - are all impossible to offer if we don’t first receive them. For any person to embody hospitality, they must first receive it from the One who created it. We must be with God.
I am not suggesting we go to God so we can simply take and then go and do what we want - even if what we want to do is a good thing. I want to avoid this transactional way of looking at our relationship with God, which I fear too many of us - myself included - often slip into. Being with God is first and foremost an honor and delight. To know Him, love Him, to be in His presence, is a grace upon grace that is hard to fathom. The one and only true and holy God desires to be with me, you, us? This seems unfathomable. Yet, it is truer than true! And we are made to worship Him. To be with Him. To love Him. This is the first reason for us to be with Him. It is my hope that we become a people formed in the way of Love as we seek the face of the One who loved us first.
And what I am also saying is that in all things, including showing hospitality to ourselves and those around us, we must recognize our utter dependence on God for all things. We need to receive true welcome, love and generosity from the Only One who can offer it purely, wholly and indefinitely. Then from the overflow of what we’ve received from our Holy Father, we can pour out to others. But we cannot receive this without first being with Him.
When we regularly sit with our Lord, speaking with Him and listening to Him, we are changed. We are formed all the more by Love and in Love. This is my ultimate prayer for all of us. Do I want people to show hospitality? Yes. Do I believe it transforms peoples’ lives, homes and communities? Absolutely. But, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:
“If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 CSB)
If I seek to show hospitality but lack love, I fear I am a senseless doer. But when I receive from God whose steadfast love endures forever, then I am able to offer that Love to others in great abundance and my hospitality is no longer from my strength but empowered by His.
What would it look like to have people all around us seeking to show hospitality, to embody it at home and throughout their lives, from the garden to our conversations to the workplace to the little league baseball game? How would this bear witness to God’s goodness and glory throughout the earth?
I do not know. Gloriously I do not know, because the Holy Spirit is infinitely creative. And I can only imagine what the Spirit would do with people empowered in God’s love wanting and willing to work with Him to spread the good news of the Kingdom in thought and deed, in the ordinary and extraordinary. But what I do know, is that we cannot even begin to consider these things, if we aren’t first present to God. So go, be with Him. Seek His face and don’t let up.
Onward my friends. In hope.
Until next time,
Alexa
