When you pass someone’s free items on the sidewalk, do you stop and look closer or ignore them completely?
My husband and I recently enjoyed some rare free time (read: babysitting) and went biking. We walked through luxurious neighborhoods, pointing out our favorite houses and gardens, until we noticed this strange device near the street.
- I wasn’t surprised that my husband immediately recognized what it was: an investment table [1].
- We pedal fast at home.
- He got off the bike and got on his Station Wagon 99 (the same one he’s been driving since he got his license thirteen years ago).
- Put the device in the back of the car and came back to see how much the investment boards cost.
- It’s currently worth it.
A few weeks later, I was walking around the house, shaking up the $50 we were earning.
“Is it wrong to want more money, ” he had asked a few weeks earlier
“How would we spend that money if we had it?”I asked.
After thinking about it, we agreed: hospitality.
We had the opportunity to practice hospitality with a couple who had moved across the street, and now we still had fifty dollars to spend.
Since they come from Iraq, they have no family or friends here, so we gathered about 20 friends and helped them move, mow the lawn, etc. I knew he was expressing his gratitude for our help.
Then we provided food and our neighbors also surprised us by preparing typical Middle Eastern dishes, heated the large slices of pita bread in the oven, then made cookies for the mom who was near our fireplace and said goodbye to people with the remains.
Hospitality can cause pain. If it’s so common, why be hospitable?
I recently learned that the Greek word for hospitality, “phylloxenia,” means “love of the stranger. “And this is exactly what we were strangers? Before God opened the doors of his house to us:
“At that time you were without Christ, separated from the community of Israel and oblivious to the covenants of promise, without having hope or God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away before were approached by the blood of Christ?So you are no longer strangers and pilgrims, but fellow citizens of the saints, and you belong to God’s family?(Ephesians 2: 12-13, 19).
As Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth writes in her last book, Ornate, “In the heart of the gospel, in the heart of the cross, the Lord Jesus opens his arms and says, ‘I want you to come home with me. ‘
My husband and I are taking small and unstable steps to love strangers, in the hope that we can better see and show the magnificent generosity of Jesus and, honestly, joy overcomes pain.
“Is it strange that I cried for him? My husband asked me the other day about someone whose Instagram account is full of exotic vacations, one after the other.
? I didn’t answer. I wouldn’t trade our lives for hers. Although it’s an ordinary life, is it very exciting?
I can’t think of another life I’d rather live besides opening my heart and home to others with this frugal but generous man by my side. Jesus is right: does paradoxical life really bring more joy: “Is it more blessed to give than to receive?(at 20. 35).
Hospitality isn’t always glamorous. It’s hard work. But hospitality, on a limited budget or not?
[1] Evaluator’s note: Investment tables are boards designed to help stretch the back for a few minutes while the person turns upside down, which are used in certain types of physiotherapy.