I think our culture has twisted the true meaning of hospitality. We get so caught up in making sure everything is perfect and making sure we have the best of the best to show off to the world. Jesus doesn’t call us to be perfect. It’s not about having more. True hospitality comes from our hearts and out of love.
Throughout my Race, I have experienced true hospitality… From the villages of India to homes of Pretoria.
In the poorest villages of India, we were always given the best they had to offer. We were served first. We usually ate red, chicken curry indoors while they ate potato curry outside on the ground. We were served more even though we said “chalu” (“enough”). We were given Sprite or Thumms Up to wash down our food. We were there to serve them, but they wanted served us in return. They opened their homes and hearts to us. Although it wasn’t extravagant, it was hospitality completely from the heart.
In Malaysia, we were continuously blessed by one of my teammate’s family. We shared many meals, went to the movies, raced plasma cars, and shared birthday cake. We were able to spend the night in their homes (with air conditioning) and shower with warm water. They treated all of us like we were family even though we had just met.
In a coffee shop in Gaborone, Botswana, one of my squad leaders struck up a conversation with a mother and her two children. They invited our team of 7 (including our squad leader) to their home for lunch and swimming later in the week. When we arrived, not only did they have lunch for us, but they also had Christmas gifts for each of us. We were complete strangers, and they were showing us the love of Jesus.
We had about a week between our departure from Molepolole, Botswana and our arrival in Bloemfontein, South Africa. It was a time called “Ask the Lord” or ATL. After nearly a week of calls and emails attempting to find a place that would fit our budget of $5 per person, per night, our prayers were answered.
One of my teammates knows a couple who live part of the year in Pretoria and part of the year in her small, hometown in Canada. Their daughter-in-law reached out to her church family, and we suddenly had a place to stay… Free of charge!
The couple picked us up from the bus station, took us to lunch and the grocery store before taking us to their house to swim and meet their children and grandchildren.
We rang in 2016 praising and worshipping the Lord with the family who opened their home to us. They fed us a delicious dinner, and they even let me hold and snuggle their sweet baby.
Do you want to know what all of these people wanted from us? Absolutely nothing. They just wanted to be with us… They wanted to talk about our lives and what Jesus was doing in and through us. That’s it. They had no expectations for what we could give them in return.
Jesus doesn’t call us to open our doors only when it’s convenient or only to those we deem worthy. The point of hospitality is people. It’s building relationships with them and loving and caring for them. It’s being like Jesus. He sought out society’s outcasts. He shared meals with tax collectors and drank water with a woman who was shunned by society. He turned away no one.
My goal in 2016 is to be more hospitable. It isn’t to make my hospitality look more like my Pinterest boards because that is unrealistic. I want to love people better. I want to love more like Jesus loves… Without expectations. I want to open my doors to others, give them my best and expect nothing in return.
What is your goal?
Joyfully yours,
Mary Catherine
