Holiday Rhythms: Hospitality
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When you think of hospitality over the holidays, how does that make you feel? For an extrovert like me, I welcome the idea of having a lot of family and friends over to my home for a nice Thanksgiving or Christmas meal. I want to bless everyone with a wonderful time of amazing food and fellowship, but if not done with Jesus as the focus, it can get quite overwhelming! Debbie Briggs mentioned in our podcast that we need to have rhythms built in our lives for the holidays; otherwise, we may feel like our rhythm is out of whack and feel completely overwhelmed with all the responsibilities of putting together a nice meal as we are being hospitable for the holidays. Have you been there? I definitely have! Debbie mentioned Moses in Exodus 18:13-17, how he felt completely overwhelmed; his rhythm was completely out of whack for all his responsibilities as a leader for the Israelites until he was given wisdom from God through his father-in-law, Jethro. If you haven’t listened to the podcast for this series on “Holiday Rhythms,” I encourage you to do so and read Exodus 18:13-24. You’ll glean wonderful wisdom from both! Maybe some of you listening are chuckling as you read this, because you’re thinking to yourself, “That’s why I don’t open my home, because I try to avoid all the craziness of the planning, shopping, cooking and hosting. Why would I drive myself crazy?! I’d rather go to someone else’s home.” Or maybe here’s another thought: “I don’t want to bring anyone into my home, because I feel like I don’t have a big enough space or it’s not pretty, or I have roommates, etc.” What’s your excuse for not being hospitable? No matter what your situation or your thoughts, let’s look at what God tells us about hospitality from His Word (the Bible), and how we can build good holiday rhythms into our lives so that we can truly have, as Debbie said, “pure enjoyment” this holiday season. A rhythm is a strong, regular, repeated pattern by which we do life. It’s a way that brings our needs, desires, and talents into harmony with each other.
Webster’s dictionary defines hospitality as “the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests and visitors.” No matter how we feel about hospitality, God shows us in 1 Peter 5:9-10: “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you use whatever gift you received to serve others.” Whether we open our own home or go to someone else’s, we can still be hospitable as God commands. He doesn’t want us to “grumble” when we are being hospitable. What ways do you find yourself grumbling? We can find ourselves grumbling over the fact that we’re spending all this money to host, nobody is helping to clean up, people are making a mess of the house, or does so-and-so really need to be here? There are many ways that we can find ourselves grumbling over hospitality and this should not be so. Also, God has given each of us gifts from the Holy Spirit when we place our trust in Jesus, and we are commanded to use our gifts received from Him to serve others. Do you know what your spiritual gifts are? If not, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to show you. Some of my spiritual gifts are serving and mercy. Remember when I told you that as an extrovert, I love to be hospitable over the holidays and invite a lot of family and friends over? I felt like I was responsible to make the seven-course meal myself, elaborately decorate my home, use fine China, buy everything needed and clean everything up by myself because I wanted to “bless” the guests that were coming. Sounds crazy, right?! No wonder I was feeling overwhelmed and grumbling with all the responsibilities. Ha! All because I wanted to bless others and get praises from people for being a good hostess. I did this to myself and like Moses, my rhythm was completely out of sync because, like Moses, I felt I needed to take on all the responsibilities myself and did not instill good habits or “rhythms.” This is not what I call having “pure enjoyment” for the holidays! I’ve come to realize that I desperately needed help and wisdom from the Lord in the way I was doing hospitality. God showed me that first of all, I was doing everything alone and that should not be so. I’ve placed a heavy load on myself, and I am wearing myself out. As Jethro said to Moses in Exodus 18:17-18: “Moses’ father-in-law said to him, ‘What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. ‘“Yes!! I was doing it alone and although I had good intentions of wanting to “bless others,” God revealed to me that I’ll soon find myself exhausted and depleted and never want to host again! God also showed me that my way of being hospitable was giving glory to myself and not to Him. You see, I wanted to look good. I wanted to be the “hostess” with the “mostess” and win the approval of others. God gave me the scripture in Matthew 5:16: “Let your light shine so that others can see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” And Colossians 3:23: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ”.
Jesus did a big shift in me. He renewed my mind with His Word and transformed my heart to do things His ways when it comes to hospitality. God showed me the hospitality that I was doing was more “entertaining” and it was all self-focused which led to feeling overwhelmed. God gave me a new definition for hospitality. It’s called “Christian” hospitality. Here’s what He revealed to me: the opening up of your heart and home to love as Jesus loved and serve others sacrificially, displaying the glory of God’s grace in Christ. Today, I don’t make hospitality about myself and how good I look anymore. I make it about Jesus and how good He looks. God wants me to live my life as a follower of Jesus with kingdom purpose in mind when it comes to biblical hospitality. You see, God showed me that everything that I have is His and I should use it to serve and bless others and give Him glory. We’ll never know how Jesus will draw others to know Him personally when we do hospitality His way.
I’m so thankful for God’s love and wisdom on hospitality! Now, I ask for help by asking others to bring a side dish and help to clean up afterwards. My house doesn’t need to be fully decorated or perfect. I don’t need to use fine China, for paper plates will suffice. My home just needs to be open and available to receive others with the love of Jesus. It needs to be a place where people are welcomed, heard, seen, loved and where Jesus is glorified. God also showed me that I need to include others in my circle and not just family and friends. Hebrews 13:2 says, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by doing so some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” I need to cross over some boundaries and borders that I’ve put into place. I need to see the hurting, the broken, the marginalized, the outcast…people who are different from me that are outside my circle. I’ll never know if I could be entertaining an angel unaware. Doing things, the way God showed me took a big load off and I can actually enjoy my time with others as I live out kingdom purpose. God truly blesses me with so much joy, peace, and love when I do things His way. Now, this is pure enjoyment! As Debbie mentioned in the podcast, “When clarity goes up, overwhelm goes down.” When I received clarity from God how I should be hospitable, my overwhelm has definitely gone down.
Here are the rhythms that God showed me that I need to put in place so that I can have pure enjoyment for the upcoming holiday season:
1. Spend time with Jesus each day in prayer.
2. Be in God’s Word.
3. Listen to Worship Songs.
4. Join Jesus in His work of redemption.
5. Get enough sleep.
6. Have good nutrition.
7. Exercise.
This holiday season, friends, whether you are opening your home, going to someone’s home, serving in a soup kitchen, visiting an elderly home, or attending a church service, will you ask God how you can be hospitable His way? Will you join me in using your gifts to serve Jesus by serving others? Will you join me and put into place the rhythms that I shared? Will you let your light shine so that others can see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven? And lastly, will you look around and see what “strangers” you can invite into your home so that they can know of God’s love for them in Christ? Let’s receive the blessing that Moses received from God when he listened and obeyed, and God enabled him to stand the strain of his responsibilities and everyone went home satisfied (Exodus 18:23).
God bless you and yours with a wonderful holiday season, friends! As daughters of the Most High King, may we all put into practice what we’ve learned about biblical hospitality. May we receive God’s abundant blessings as we do things His way for His glory.
Please join us next week as we listen to Christine Barela on “Thanksgiving.”