grace flows down

On Being Hospitable

Since moving home again, I've been thinking a lot about hospitality. Hospitality is something very close to my heart and what I want to do, but now that I'm without my own kitchen and living room, it makes practice a little more difficult. I know that I'm always welcome to still host at home, but it's not the same thing. Being in school also makes it difficult because of the limited opportunities in my schedule. I was able to have people over some last year, but never like I had hoped.

So how else can I be hospitable? I was thinking about how hospitality is more than just a cup of tea. Can it also be a "character quality"? Can you practice hospitality even just by your actions and demeanor? Perhaps for those of us who have no true place of our own, we can still practice hospitality by our attitudes and interactions with others. A hospitable person is warm, open and friendly, regardless of location. If hospitality is about sharing something, we can still share our hearts and lives, in the classroom or coffee shop.

Another place I've been thinking about being more hospitable is in my teaching. For one half hour, the practice room is my place where I meet with someone one-on-one. Even if I don't own it, I do have some control over the attitudes that are developed within it. More importantly I can influence the opinions assumed about the love of God based upon the time spent in that practice room. What can I do to make the gross, ugly colored walls of BU practice rooms more hospitable? What can I do to make my teaching more hospitable?

Yes, hospitality is more than eating and sitting. It is a way of living life.

posted by Shannon Koons @ 4:35 PM