Radical

Scripture:

1Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. 3Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

Hebrews 13:1-3

Devotional:

Have you ever been in desperate need of hospitality? I know that’s an odd question to ask, but track with me. When I was 21 years old, I took a trip to Colombia. While there, I got a really bad fever, and was left behind by the ministry team I was with. Before you get too concerned, they didn’t just dump me somewhere random. They left me and my then girlfriend, and now wife in the care of some local women who were in charge of foodservice for a local school.

While I was drifting in and out of consciousness, they provided medicine, blankets, offered soup, and gave me the thing I wanted most. A cup of coffee. I was only awake for a small portion of the time, but they were so gracious that they brought me 10 blankets, and I used them all. Sometime during that day, my fever broke, and I happened to survive (as you may well suspect). 

I tell you this story to encourage you. Sometimes your hospitality does so much more than you think. In my case, their hospitality may have saved my life, because I got to eat and drink for the first time in days. Our hospitality is an outward working of our inner love for others. 

I don’t know any of those ladies' names, and I couldn’t even speak the language, but they showed me hospitality that gained them nothing. I have no doubt that God was incredibly pleased with them that day. 

It’s a foreign thing to us Americans to practice radical hospitality. It’s also radical for us to consider visiting and caring for those in prison. And altogether it’s a crazy thing for us to love those around us. However, our faith is in Jesus, and Jesus is radical. He asks us to do things that are uncomfortable and inconvenient. He asks us to love with everything we have and to share ourselves with others. We are called to mourn with those who mourn, and to rejoice with those who rejoice. 

If your life doesn’t reflect this, maybe it’s time to ask yourself, “How can I change that?” 
Today, you might need to buy coffee for someone at Starbucks, or maybe you have a neighbor who has a need that you can meet. Maybe it’s as simple as sitting with someone who is going through loss. These are all ways we can emulate Jesus to others.  

Prayer:

Father, help me to see places where there are needs that I can help to meet. Teach me how to transform my world through radical hospitality and selfless generosity. Let everything I do bring more glory to your name. Amen.