True Hospitality
Compassion: Thoughts on Cultivating a Good Heart invites us to consider that our attention to the little things makes it easier to appreciate the concerns of our friends, families, communities, and the world at large,” writes compiler and editor Amy Lyles Wilson. “In so doing, we can begin to conduct our lives with an ever-present spirit of compassion instead of saving such outpouring for tragic situations and natural disasters.
Read Luke 14:7-14
When you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.
- Luke 14:13-14 (NRSV) Today's Devotional
In my work as a pastor, I often visited people in nursing homes who were suffering from some form of dementia. I knew that within an hour or so of my leaving, many of them had forgotten who I was or even that I had visited at all. I sometimes reasoned that unless a nursing home employee or family member saw me, I would receive no credit for my ministry to that person.
This passage in Luke says otherwise. Jesus warns us that true hospitality has nothing to do with receiving a reward for our actions. True hospitality is giving without the hope of being paid back. True hospitality grows out of our love for God and our desire to be Christ in the world, not out of a desire to build or protect our ego or public image.
I might have felt that my visits with dementia patients were lost ministry moments; but in truth they may have been the more perfect ministry of my life.
Anna Shirey (Missouri, USA)
Thought for the Day: Every good deed done for Christ counts eternally.
Prayer: Dear God, show us how we can create nurturing and holy ground today. Free us of self-interest and help us to serve for your glory. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Those living with dementia
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