First Peter 4:9-10…..Be hospitable one to another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of G__, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.
OK! ………….Now What?
As I was making my regular rounds at the Nursing Home visiting my mother, it suddenly occurred to me that it was no longer a chore or obligation, but it had become a blessing to me to be able to do this. Too often, it is so easy to complain about the interruptions that we have in our lives that interfere with what we had planned. This is out of my way is a common excuse or quite simply, where will I find the time? We love to complain don’t we? There are those who complain on the outside and those that complain on the inside – both cancers that will eat at our very being.
Is this servant hospitality really cut out for what it is supposed to be? Is this hogwash? Is it blowing smoke? Does it make us feel good to say that we are being hospitable?
Should we not have private moments when we say and do these things?
Complaining has become a way of life in this country – we criticize our leaders of both parties, yet turn a blind eye when we see something wrong being done but because the person doing the wrong belongs to the party of choice, we dismiss it; we burn the flag and say it is our right to burn the flag, forgetting that we are burning the symbol of our freedom before the world; we complain because we have to work certain hours or on weekends; we complain that we could not get the time off we wanted; we complain because we have to go out of our way to help someone in need; we complain just for the sake of complaining.
Is there a wind that blows the dust of complaints away followed by the soft breezes of happiness? Will we rid our minds of looking to complain? Will we give up the right to complain for the wrongs being done because these complaints fall upon deaf ears? What is the source of our complaints?
As we become more seasoned in the business world, we ask ourselves, why isn’t someone doing something about this. We want to have things go well and we fight with our thoughts and work to have things go well, but to no avail. Then, the complaints start – sometimes with merit and sometimes just personal beliefs. When did we lose our joy of living and substitute it for LOOKING for things that are wrong rather than REJOICING for those things that are right?
Servant hospitality in its initial stages must be violent – it must rip at our very being and cause us to tear ourselves apart from those things that have taken over our lives that have made us selfish. Rather than complaining about situations, we should look at what WE can do about these situations and provide for change.
Servant hospitality will help us through those dark days when nothing seems to go right, when our ideas are overlooked, when our work ethic is challenged, when we question our goodness to others as too time consuming, and during those times when we throw up our hands and say, what am I doing here and is it really worth it.
Psalms 6:6-7…I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping. My eyes waste away because of grief; they grow weak because of all my foes. We all have those days in our business and personal lives, whether we choose to admit it or not; however, in the words of King David – Psalms 25:4-5….Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the G__ of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
Now, that really is a discussion for another day.
Blessings.