Radical Hospitality
(audio version)
Read: Genesis 1:27, Ephesians 2:18-22
Eight in the evening to One in the morning. One in the morning on to Seven. Either way, that's a long time to just sit around, making sure nothing is going wrong, nothing bad is happening, that if anyone needs a blanket or something, we can get it. How will we pass the time in the middle of the night? It's dark. It's quiet. It's going to be either boring or hard.
Nope. My security shifts for Shelter Week were nothing of the kind; they were very different, and they were very rewarding.
At one session I was convinced to play Euchre (no doubt the official card game of the United Methodist Church) with my security teammates. (This was despite my not having played in at least a few decades.)
The game turned into outreach as one of our guests saw us playing and came to join us. Entertainment – pastime – turned into outreach, into nurture, into fellowship.
There was nothing hard or boring about that night – it was comforting and comfortable.
Prayer: Father, we know we were created in Your image. Help us always to see that image in others; to see Jesus in those we meet, whether the greatest or least of our brothers and sisters. Amen.
Charlie van Becelaere
(audio version)
Read: Genesis 1:27, Ephesians 2:18-22
Eight in the evening to One in the morning. One in the morning on to Seven. Either way, that's a long time to just sit around, making sure nothing is going wrong, nothing bad is happening, that if anyone needs a blanket or something, we can get it. How will we pass the time in the middle of the night? It's dark. It's quiet. It's going to be either boring or hard.
Nope. My security shifts for Shelter Week were nothing of the kind; they were very different, and they were very rewarding.
At one session I was convinced to play Euchre (no doubt the official card game of the United Methodist Church) with my security teammates. (This was despite my not having played in at least a few decades.)
The game turned into outreach as one of our guests saw us playing and came to join us. Entertainment – pastime – turned into outreach, into nurture, into fellowship.
There was nothing hard or boring about that night – it was comforting and comfortable.
Prayer: Father, we know we were created in Your image. Help us always to see that image in others; to see Jesus in those we meet, whether the greatest or least of our brothers and sisters. Amen.
Charlie van Becelaere
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