two words:  luci swindoll.

i love her.  and no, i have never met her.  but i love her nonetheless.

she wrote a book called Wide My World, Narrow My Bed and it is fabulous.  it’s about living and loving the single life as you walk with the Lord and is, in huge part, the inspiration for this very blog.

in her book luci touches on a lot and her words left me turning over new ideas for my time (whether it be life or season) of singleness… left me wanting to taste flavors of it yet unsavored.

it also left me stamping my foot and crossing my arms in classic five-year-old-girl-with-pigtails-throwing-a-tantrum fashion.  why?  because of what she shared about practicing hospitality.

when Jesus came into my life He changed everything.  even to such a degree that i started desiring to have people over to cook for them!  now many of you may be thinking, “what’s the big deal about that?”  i should perhaps tell you at this point that up until Christ came into my life i had absolutely no interest in learning anything about cooking.  my first attempts at cutting up raw chicken breast basically consisted of me holding a knife at arm’s length while trying to saw the chicken in two.  i refused to hold the chicken still with my other hand.  partially because raw chicken feels gross and partially because i was terrified i was going to accidentally saw my hand in half.  that was my senior year of college.  just sayin’.

well luci–as a follower of Jesus who believes His Word–is all about hospitality, and the more she shared about it the more impassioned i became.  i found myself–slightly indignantly–saying aloud to the Lord, “married people should not have a corner on the market of having people over!”  admittedly there was an air of brazenness in my heart when i said this, but that didn’t make it any less true.  we are commanded to practice hospitality (Romans 12:13), and to practice it “without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9)!

and, what’s more, the command for us to practice hospitality is not a conditional one.  i don’t think that a “difficult living situation” or a “too-small space” or a “busy schedule” exclude us from this.  and our marital status doesn’t determine whether or not we are “eligible” or “put together enough” to pour our lives into others.  married people in general aren’t any less messed up.  we are all always to be intentional to pour our lives out for others and steward all that we have–whether it be our finances, our time, a house, an apartment, a dorm room, a broken down nissan altima, a minivan, or the box of brownies in your pantry that you bought three days ago–in such a way that others might see more of who Jesus is.

over the last few months there has been a growing desire in my heart to have my own apartment and steward it well for the Lord.  to have people over and “do life together.”  to invite them into my life and encourage them and point them toward Jesus.  to wrestle through the hard questions in life with them over hot tea at my well-worn dining room table.  to cook for and serve couples and families in a space they don’t have to clean up themselves.  to have the college girls over for rich conversations and times of pouring over the Word while teaching them practical life skills simply by inviting them to live life alongside me in my home, even if only for the afternoon.  to choose paint colors and invite friends over to laugh together while we paint.  so wonderful.  oh how i hope…

what a beautiful and adventurous and rich ministry that would be… not that others are less beautiful or adventurous or rich… but this is most assuredly my desire right now.

we shall see if the Lord will provide it.

so what about you dear sisters?  how are you doing in your pursuit of practicing hospitality?  what do you think it can look like to practice hospitality in your life right now right where you are?  i would love to hear your thoughts.