Acts 2:46-47
Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
The early church had much different view of their possessions then our current American culture does today.
Without denigrating our society today, I want to encourage instead a fresh look at our homes and possession today. I think getting a new perspective is healthy and always being reminded that the things we own today could all be gone tomorrow. We are not assured of owning things and spaces forever, because we are not even assured of our next breath. Rather we are to hold all things loosely understanding that we have the things we do because of His gracious gifts to us.
This is why I believe our homes should be places that are useful.
Useful, not just to us, or our family or even church and friends, but also to extend to our neighbors and even strangers. The busier our culture becomes, the more difficult this idea is. And honestly, I get it. We have three of our own kids and they each have had various activities through the years. I know how crazy life is and so I speak from experience and understanding. This concept is so hard to wrap our heads around.
How do we create the margin in our lives to be able to even consider being intentional to develop a home that is open and inviting to others?
The first step is really stopping the crazy train on our schedules. Years ago we had to tell the kids we were limiting activities. I know don’t throw stuff at me. But here’s the thing..we have three kids, even when we tried to limit them to one thing each, we were still on the go constantly. Before we homeschooled, I promise you we had zero extra time. We barely had time together especially since we had jobs too.
Stepping back and assessing what we are doing and why is important. I think we have to be honest and at times make choices about how busy we really want to be. Because busyness becomes the enemy of connecting with people – our people, and other people. And God loves people. If we are here to love God and love others, we have to assess how we are doing on this journey. Perhaps as we look at how we are doing with this one objective we can then move forward with decisions about how we really want to live our lives. The thing I know to be true is that many times, I find myself often wondering where time actually goes. The reason this occurs is because of busyness and just trying to get through the day. Before you know it, the days turn to weeks and the weeks turn to months and man the months become years and we have been in survival mode.
I have often found that this reflection has caused me to make changes and specifically in the last few years, I have been focused on creating space in my life for people. Using my home as a natural connection point for people is my goal, and I am constantly reevaluating my schedule to be sure I am keeping my goal in mind.
Jesus loved people, and if I am going to reflect Jesus to others I must love people too. Showing love might mean different things at different times, but I’m sure it often means bringing people into my space. Sometimes that means bringing them into our messes, but mostly it means being comfortable with the role Christ calls us too and utilizing all the blessings He has given us.