Guest Post: Hospitality

This week my dear friend, Abby Alexander, is sharing her perspective on caregiving...



One thing that I have learned from Connie is hospitality. Not the flashy, showy hospitality but nitty-gritty hospitality.

I first met Connie in 2010. 14 years ago. She was a missionary in Fort Wayne at International House, an outreach for refugees placed in Fort Wayne. I was part of a college group from Huntington University which volunteered with the youth program weekly. It was our shared ministry that forged our friendship, but it didn’t fade when we both moved away from Fort Wayne in 2014, she to North Carolina to be with her folks and I to China to teach English. Her journey back to Fort Wayne took longer than mine but nevertheless the “saggy mattress” (her description) of Fort Wayne, pulled us both back.

Given this history, I would say that I have known Connie throughout many seasons, and it has always been her simple, everyday hospitality that has challenged me to grow in this area as well.

You see, with her disability, Connie doesn’t do hospitality in the way that it is “normally” done. In some ways her hospitality goes against the grain but that makes the lessons embedded within all the more precious. Connie’s limitations as a hostess are a unique opportunity. Her guests are not passive; they are active participants. Her guests don’t just “sit and get;” they get up and help. It’s far more communal and far more beneficial. I think this kind of hospitality - which breaks down expectations and breaks down barriers - can only be practiced by people who are willing to be vulnerable and willing to be humble. It would be easy to let her limitations be an excuse to isolate and withdraw but I have never seen Connie do that. From a house full of Muslim teenage girls to tea parties with scones, Connie’s doors have always been open. 

I once heard my pastor say that limited does not mean less. How could it when Jesus, very God of very God, accepted limitations and by doing so glorified God (see Philippians 2). I see Connie exemplify this amazing truth about Jesus every time I interact with her.

Connie’s example of hospitality helped encourage me to make use of the tiny apartment I lived in with my husband for 3 years. We had an incredibly limited space, but we loved filling that small living room with people and food whenever we could. It was tempting to let our pride keep our doors closed because we couldn’t offer as much comfort as other people. But Jesus calls us to slay our pride and humble ourselves.

Hospitality is not an event but a lifestyle. Limitations are not excuses but, dare I say it, gifts.

 

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