“ Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.”
― Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
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People can cope with strangers by first searching their inner most being and then changing their relationship with other people. Strangers are people seeking self-realization from many things including their culture, country, friends, family and neighbors who could have turned against them. They are out looking for a hospitable place where they can live peacefully without fear. On the contrary, strangers have become victims of hostility instead of hospitability. This is evident from apartments protected by dogs and double locks, subways with security guards, cities with armed police officers and airports with safety officials. People yearn to conduct good acts like visiting prisoners, feeding the hungry and offering shelter to immigrants. However, they have hostile feelings of avoiding people and places because of fear of an attack.
In daily life, people interact with others from various backgrounds be it in at the workplace, in recreational facilities, in social places like hospitals and school. How a person treats, a stranger defines who they are. After completion of school, I set out to look for a job. I made several applications to different companies and was lucky to receive interview invitations in some of the companies. One of the companies still makes a mark in my life because of how they racially segregated me. Out of the three interviewees, I was the only black person among my white counterparts. Unfortunately, I did not proceed with the interview because of my color as the interviewing panel stated clearly that the job belonged only to whites. Similarly, another occasion in my life that reminds me to be hospitable to strangers was when I was once involved in a road accident. Away from home and in a strange town, a lorry collided with the bus that I was in and the next thing I knew was I was in a hospital bed. The person who had rescued my life was a Latino woman who took care of me until the day I recovered my memory.
People should exercise hospitality towards strangers by making them friends instead of enemies. For instance, children are strangers that come into the lives of parents, as each one of them is unique in their own way. In this case, parents should learn to love their children and not treat them as their property to own and rule over. Charity begins at home, when people or parents can love themselves and their own children, they can extend this to other people. This is because every stranger has different needs. There are those that hurt psychologically and need guiding and counseling. When such people approach a person, it is only fair that they provide a listening ear and offer them good counsel. People should assist others looking for jobs, shelter, and food as this is what defines hospitality.
“ To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.” ― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
When people lose a loved one through death, some of them develop stress that they can get into a state of depression. Others do not talk to other people regarding their troubles. Instead, they let anger pile inside them that they could engage in other harmful activities like abusing drugs and alcohol so they forget their pain. I remember losing my father to Arthritis. I went through a state of depression but it took a preacher to get me back on the right path. He preached stating that God is the only giver and taker of life. Just like a farmer who goes to harvest, God selects the best. Besides, he talked about Job, a servant of God in the bible whom Satan put into temptations but he still stood strong and kept his faith in God. There was a time that Job lost his properties and children to death and he was questioning God. On the contrary, God inquired if he had the right to question him because He is in control of every situation in our lives, be it death. Through this preaching, I resorted to the word of God for consolation and that is how I managed to overcome my grief.
When people experience certain aspects and experiences in life, they learn to listen to their inner most cravings for liberation and a new life. This is when they begin to realize that in the bible, Jesus was just not speaking but reaching out to Christians regarding their most personal needs. In the same case, the gospel is a message responding to the individual human condition. Similarly, the church does not force its followers to observe specific rules; instead, it fulfils their hunger and thirst for the word of God.
“ The great spiritual task facing me is to so fully trust that I belong to God that I can be free in the world--free to speak even when my words are not received; free to act even when my actions are criticized, ridiculed, or considered useless.... I am convinced that I will truly be able to love the world when I fully believe that I am loved far beyond its boundaries.” ― Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life
One day, my prayer team members and I set out to go on a seminar to a different church in Britain. As head of bible study, I had the obligation to preach in all the sessions of our church. Considering that I am an African, it was quite strange for our Britton counterparts to see a black preaching. In my sermons, most of them were whispering and when I tried to demand silence, the whispers and murmurs persisted. However, this did not deter me from preaching the gospel as when I reflected back at the life of Jesus, not everybody listened to him. Besides, people rejected him and some even sold him out to the authorities after which he faced crucifixion. Another case in example is the workplace where there are two types of people. Some employees respect, listen to the employer and observe all work rules. However, there are those defiant ones who act against the employers’ standards and words. However, the company must work to attain its objectives whether it has respectful or defiant employees.
In spirituality, what matters the most is a person’s salvation and focusing on the word of God. Christians should defy destructions that make them stray from the word of God. They should purpose to do what Christ himself ordered them to do, and that is spreading his gospel. It does not matter when people make fun of them, ridicule them or consider them useless. They are the light and salt of the world.
