Becoming a Lover of Strangers...

Well, it's happened again.

One of the young adults I work with is leaving the church family I'm a part of. Not because of anything I've done (thankfully!) or because she believes this to be a bad or heretical church. Her reason is pretty simple: she didn't connect.

She tried. Oh did she try. She called people. She hung around for well over a year. She tried opening up. But rarely did anyone call her. Rarely was she given a warm welcome by the regulars. Rarely was she invited from the end of the table to join the conversation in the middle.

It hurts. I hurt - I considered her family. I consider all of the young adults I work with to be family. And every time one of them moves on - whether due to job change or marriage or whatever - I hurt. I do celebrate with them if it's appropriate (just as I celebrate with this particular young adult that she has found a different church that instantly felt like home) but inwardly I hurt.

But why did this other church feel like home? She was welcomed. She found a church family that practiced hospitality.

I've been told by a very reliable source that the word "hospitality" in the Greek means "lover of strangers." It's so easy to love those we already know, to go shake hands with the person we just hung out with last night, to call up those we "click" with - but what about the new person, the outsider, the stranger?

The church I am a part of is a very hospitable place - we just missed it with this one gal. The group she was a part of didn't go the distance required to make her part of the family - they left her feeling like the unwanted step child. But rather than just mourn this loss, I want to use it to remind me to be a lover of all people, even strangers.

So I am committing myself to calling new people more. I'm making a decision today to shoot off more quick "hello" emails. I'm going to get back to what I used to regularly do - walk up to complete strangers and make them feel at home.

So I challenge you, as a young adult, to be a lover of strangers. To make new people acquaintances and acquaintances friends. To welcome someone new this week with a smile and your name. To extended the hand of friendship to that new coworker. To take a plate of cookies to your new neighbor. To invite that guest at your church into your "church home" and give them a tour. To help new people connect because once upon a time you were a "new person".