Guests

Recently our home has felt a little like a hotel. Maybe it’s the price of travel or that we live in a pretty great area of California, but we have had the privilege and pain of hosting many of our friends as guests in our home this summer. Hey don’t get me wrong, I love having people over, but it’s nice to finally have our home back to ourselves and finally no one is eating all of my Pop Tarts. I have come to realize is that even though guests are fun to have over, guests are also a lot of work. I’m sure we have all said, “make yourself at home” at one time or another to the guests that come to our home and to a certain extent we mean it, but to another extent we don’t really think they’ll take you up on it. I mean we just say it to be nice right? I think I did more dish washing and shut off more lights in the past two weeks then I have all year.

I love the story Jesus tells when he compares being a guest in someone’s home to life with God.


"When someone invites you to dinner, don't take the place of honor. Somebody more important than you might have been invited by the host. Then he'll come and call out in front of everybody, 'You're in the wrong place. The place of honor belongs to this man.' Red-faced, you'll have to make your way to the very last table, the only place left. When you're invited to dinner, go and sit at the last place. Then when the host comes he may very well say, 'Friend, come up to the front.' That will give the dinner guests something to talk about! What I'm saying is, if you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face. But if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."

Being a guest is a privilege, but being invited is an honor. I hope I can remember that when I go to someone’s home, but also every day that I realize that I am a guest to experience life. God has invited us to honor Him with our lives and to live everyday remembering Him. When we place ourselves first before everyone else, we will only experience temporary recognition and comfort in life and eventually embarrassment when we are exposed for who we really are. However, when we place others first we can experience the real thrill of having God promote us in life. I haven’t got this totally figured out yet, but I’m working on being a good guest every day.

In the meantime come on over, just remember to eventually leave.