Did you know that the pineapple is the international symbol of hospitality?
Hospitality is what I majored in during College and its been part of my profession since I was 16 in many different facets. I have learned the ins and outs of hotel management and up to the race was still actively pursuing a career in the hotel industry. The hotel industry is ever changing in its standards and expectations so I believe there is always something to learn. Whether it be operational or how we provide service to others and the hospitality we provide them. Everyone is different so what you may do for one guest doesn’t work for the other. It’s confusing but it can be learned over time.
I have never experienced hospitality or provided hospitality like I have in Ecuador. The first day we went to our ministry their Director said that when people come here from the states to live or vacation they almost all leave saying they felt like a person for the first time in a long time. I didn’t completely understand why he said that but after just two weeks here I see it. The people here care, they want to get to know you, give you time, and they hug you no matter who you are, what you do, what you wear, etc. The kiss your cheek when they say hello and goodbye no mater who you are, what you do, or what you wear. They are respectful and always willing to spend time with you. They care.
Being here has really made me look at hospitality in a different way from both ends, giving and receiving. At work we would encounter the nicest people and some of the meanest people. People that gave you a reason to keep doing what you were doing looking past the people that could tear you down to your core just to build themselves up or get what they wanted. In America people forget that the people that work behind the desks are people. They are daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, people with feelings and struggles of their own. In America people that work behind the desks forget that the people they provide service to aren’t just names on a reservation or people in a guest room or a table in a restaurant. We come into the day looking at numbers and figures to staff accordingly to get people through the line in a timely manner and to ensure we have the right amount of people to serve the guest appropriately. We have small talk with them and at times you can go the entire day having the same conversation with hundreds of people not sharing a single word of vulnerability or true concern for what they are going through other than ensuring that everything we are to provide is to their expectations.
We don’t hug and kiss them on the cheek when we greet them or say goodbye. We shake their hands at times or just verbally say it was nice to have you and we hope to see you again.
Could you imagine a day when you walked into work or into a grocery store and the clerk came from around their work station to hug you and kiss you on the cheek welcoming you to work or thanking you for your business? Would you feel welcomed or truly appreciated or like they just entered your personal space and you need to report them to their manager?
Its crazy to think that in Matthew 22: 37-39 the Lord says “Love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” God called us to love our neighbor as ourselves. But are we really doing that in our everyday lives. Building each other up as a community under God. You should treat the complete stranger you come into contact with everyday as if they are your neighbor you have known your whole life. The homeless person on the side of the road should be treated with the same respect and hospitality as the President of the United States. Their title does not matter the only thing that matters is that they are a child of God and God loves them both equally and seeks after them both equally. So why don’t we do the same?
After this month I have realized that the love we have for our neighbors at home is not sufficient or equivalent to what God has asked of us. So what is something you could do this week to show those around you the love and hospitality that God has asked us to show our neighbors everyday?
