Henri Nouwen writes, “Every good relationship between two or more people, whether it is friendship, marriage, or community, creates space where strangers can enter and become friends. Good relationships are hospitable. When we enter into a home and feel warmly welcomed, we will soon realize that the love among those who live in that home is what makes that welcome possible.”
It is easy in America to fall into the trap of compartmentalizing our lives. It is easy to say, “I do the church thing on Sundays, I have a small group on Tuesday nights, and I do a service project once a month.” And then others say, “Man, you are rocking the Christian life.”
This leads me to ask, “Where in the world did we become so satisfied with mediocrity?” I have been satisfied way too many days. When I seek to be comfortable and shut my life off from others and then choose when to minister, I need to do a heart check. The following are some questions from a missional cardiogram that we use often at Sojourn Community Church. I will add a few of my own as well. These questions are not meant to beat us up, but they are meant to help us see if we are really being hospitable and if we are on mission 24/7 and not just when we feel like it.
• Do I have regular conversations with people outside the faith?
• Have I shared a meal with someone outside the faith in the last month?
• Have I served a friend who is outside the faith in the last month?
• Have I invited a friend who is outside the faith to church or my community group?
• Have I shared the Gospel in the last month?
• Do I look for opportunities to serve my neighbors?
• Do I have the tendency to run from people who are needy?
• Do I need to repent?
• What can I do this week to meet the needs of one person in my life?
How can you start? Here is one easy example. My wife and I just moved into a new neighborhood and are renovating an older house. She has already baked cookies and taken them to some of our surrounding neighbors and begun to ask them about their stories. We are having the widow who lives next door over this week for supper and will paint her window trim in the next weeks. All of this things are simple, but they all breathe life. And we hear the familiar refrain, “You get life when you give yours away.”
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