DEACON UPDATE
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 | Rethinking Hospitality |
November 2013
Last week my friend Amy and I met for lunch at a relatively new place in town. It’s the sort of restaurant where you order at the counter then your food is brought to the table (this place is pretty small, so the food is often delivered by the same person who took the order). Amy paid for her sandwich and salad, put the change in her wallet, then held out her hand to the woman behind the counter with these words: "I come here pretty often and I certainly recognize you, but I don’t know your name. I’m Amy." The surprised woman offered her own hand, as well as her name—Lola. When Lola brought our food and came back to check on us periodically, I noticed that Amy used her new friend’s name each time, making it clear that this relationship was one she was taking seriously. I can’t help but think that Lola, too, will remember Amy's name the next time she comes in.
We don't often see the kind of hospitality Amy modeled so well. We expect to receive hospitality in places like restaurants and department stores (and can sometimes be quick to complain when we don't), but how often do we offer it ourselves, especially to the extent that Amy did that day? In our busy-ness, how often do we simply not see the people who serve us, people behind counters, taking our tolls as we travel, handing us a cup of coffee through a drive-up window?
We shall be known by the manner of our living. What does the manner of your living, the way you treat those who serve you, say about you? How might you serve them, as Jesus called us to do?
I have a long way to go to catch up with Amy, let alone Jesus.
"Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it."
~~Hebrews 13:2 |
Church of the Brethren | 1451 Dundee Avenue, Elgin, Illinois 60120
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