Sacrificial Hospitality

Sacrificial Hospitality

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.

“Now remember,” our pastor friend Carl told the group, “they’re giving us their best. I don’t care if you don’t like it, you will accept it—and gratefully.”

This reminder came as my husband and I were helping lead a youth mission trip to Mexico several years ago. We were going to be spending a week traveling throughout small villages, sharing about Jesus and encouraging the communities we were in along the way.

Carl went on to remind the teenagers (and us) that when we went into these villages and homes, people were giving us their best—their best food, their best drink, the best of the little they had.

It was a bit of a shock to realize that the simple dish they made likely included the only meat they had for that week, and instead of saving it for themselves, they had been quick to offer it to us. It was humbling and a little embarrassing, because we as Americans think so little about things like that. How much meat we eat in a week doesn’t even cross our minds, but to the people we were visiting, giving up this meat was a huge sacrifice. And yet they did it, seemingly joyfully.

I came home with a new understanding of what hospitality really is. Beyond just being inconvenient, true hospitality can be sacrificial in many ways—placing others’ comforts above our own.

I think often about the sacrificial hospitality displayed to us on that mission trip and still struggle to do it well in my own life. It seems our hosts understood what the Scriptures remind us: that whatever we do, we should do it as unto the Lord rather than people. If my giving is tied to my love of Christ, I won’t be concerned about how much I’m sacrificing—because my goal is to simply honor Christ, who is worthy of everything I have.

— Kendra

— Today’s Act of Friendship —

Show hospitality toward someone in a way that requires a sacrifice of your money or time.