Reaching Out

CORE PRACTICE #88: Be hospitable.

Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, for some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it! —Hebrews 13:2

TONY

Lauren and I discovered that one of our favorite things about being involved with the NFL was that it gave us plenty of opportunities to be warm and welcoming to people in need.

When I became a head coach, requests for our help poured in. Thankfully, my assistants—Lora McCarthy when I was with the Bucs and Jackie Cooke when I was with the Colts—were a huge help. They sorted through all the requests we received to reach out to the ill or the needy, or to participate in a church or nonprofit event. They knew the causes that were close to our hearts—children, education and Christian outreach—and they also knew which ones had a chance to fit into our schedules.

Of course, in reality, hospitality is often neither easy nor convenient. Some interactions may even make us a little uncomfortable. When the late Abe Brown first approached me about visiting prison inmates with his ministry, I was pretty nervous. But after my first few visits, I realized that these men were as eager to hear about God’s love as anyone on the outside. Probably more so.

We can’t always neatly pencil hospitality into our schedules either. I learned this from Keli McGregor, whom I first met when speaking at an Impact for Living conference several years ago. Keli, former president of the Colorado Rockies baseball team, passed away unexpectedly at the age of forty-seven. After his death, the stories that were shared of his hospitality were legion.

For instance, one day Keli and Dick Monfort, the owner of the Rockies, were headed to a meeting with a local Denver sports reporter to discuss the state of the franchise. On the drive there, they came upon a woman in a broken-down car. Even though Keli and Dick had a ready excuse—the meeting they needed to get to—the two men stopped to be sure her car was taken care of before they continued on to their meeting.

Keli had a similar experience on another day when he was running late to a meeting. As he drove down a Denver highway, he passed a muscular, tattoo-covered man changing a tire. Because the person looked capable of changing a tire on his own (not to mention that the man looked a little sketchy), Keli drove on. A few minutes later, however, Keli’s conscience got the better of him. He pulled off at the next exit, swung around, and stopped at the car on the side of the road. Then he assisted the man with the tire.

Too often, men in particular assume that hospitality is only about serving tea and cookies. Yet any time we put ourselves out there to ensure someone else is comfortable, we are giving others a glimpse of God’s grace. And as if that weren’t enough, God says we may even be unknowingly interacting with angels!

Adventure Application: How can you and your spouse reach out and make a difference to someone this week?