New Year's Realignment: Hospitality is Love

I go to 6am CrossFit four days a week. Why? For the workout, yes, but there is a quiet hospitality--always welcoming, always caring--and that (along with frequent soreness) is what stays with me.

Our church has a coffee and (in the winter) hot chocolate bar. You take your beverage into the sanctuary and sit at round tables with candles, dimmed lights and comfortable, brown chairs--and other people. You always leave knowing someone just a little better as you chatted in the round.

I host Granna Camp every summer, and though it is themed around something (healthy popsicle research, veggies grown in our garden), I hope what my grandchildren remember most is how excited I am to be with them every day of their stay.

All examples of unremitting hospitality. I won't forget the moment I read, in the Message translation, how Jesus answered two of John's disciples when they asked if he was the One for whom they had waited or was there another (Luke 7):

Go back and tell John what you have just seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the wretched of the earth have God's hospitality salvation extended to them.

God's descriptor for salvation is hospitality!

This series has us thinking of realignment of heart and soul for the new year. God says in Isaiah:

Forget about what's happened; don't keep going over old history. Be alert. Be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. 

In the new year, surround yourself with hospitality: seek it for yourself in venues that understand its power and influence, and serve it to others with energy and inventiveness. Perhaps if you've never received hospitality salvation, this is your time.

In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul is reporting how Titus was overwhelmed by the church:

He can't quit talking about it, going over again and again the story of your prompt obedience, and the dignity and sensitivity of your hospitality.

God has detailed this earth and his children in ways that will take eternity to discover. The dignity and sensitivity of his hospitality are the mark of his exceeding love for us.

I wish for you, in your new year's realignment, the chase of hospitality and the capture of its aroma of love.

Comments are welcome at feedyourstrength@gmail.com.