Well, as cheesy as it is I've had to ask myself that question the last couple of days. Most of you know my wife... she's amazing. She has the gift of hospitality and she makes our home the most open and welcoming home I've ever seen. Everyone we know understands that they are free to stop by, hang out, eat dinner or stay the night whenever they need to (it annoys me at times... but Kelli loves it!!!).
Well, over the last year we've been burned pretty badly... as many people have... through our hospitality. Two people in particular have been welcomed into our home for extended time periods and have proceeded to be fake, lazy and at times have straight out lied to us. Their deception was put into practice so that they could get what they wanted. That has left us with the haunting question... do we still open our home when we know there is a good chance we will be used and abused?
I know the "church" culture that I have been raised in would start to give a very spiritual sounding diatribe about boundaries in ministry, protecting your family, etc. etc. To be honest, while there is some wisdom built in there I just can't find backing for it in the Bible.
However, some people allow themselves to be used and abused to the point of bitterness and the breakdown of their marriage and family. I definitely don't see that in the Bible.
So this week, when a member of our church. who has not proven himself the most diligent employment seeker, needed a place to stay for an indefinite amount of time, we had to ask a familiar question. Not, "What do we want to do?" Not, "What would our family and friends tell us to do?" Instead we had to ask, "What would Jesus do?"
Here's what I came up with... "I don't know." That's where we are. In the meantime, there's a church member staying with us because there's one thing I do know. If I want to do what Jesus would do, I must always error on the side of compassion. To God be the glory!
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