let yourself be inconvenienced by inconvenience

I was challenged and encouraged by this brilliant post from Challies. I'd love people to feel like this with me - like they can inconvenience me, drop in at a moment's notice, take up my time and my life - but I don't think they do. Something to work on!

Anything worth doing will take time and cost you something. We notice, as our attention focused more on families and children, that many people in our community protect themselves from inconvenience as though inconvenience is deadly. We decided that we are not inconvenienced by inconvenience. We are sure that the Good Samaritan had other plans that fateful day...

Your house is not your own....You have not fully reconciled yourself to the fact that it is not your house until you are willing to have others invite themselves in...

One of the highest purposes of Christians is to extend hospitality and friendship to others. In a culture where individuals are becoming ever more individualistic and families are ever-more retreating into their own lives, Christians can be known as people who graciously and cheerfully extend hospitality to others, who refuse to be inconvenienced by inconvenience. Christian houses will be known as the ones with open doors, where invitations are extended and expected...

Do people feel that they can presume upon your time?...Or do they feel that to use your time is to cause you inconvenience and that you are hesitant to make time in your schedule for them?...

Do you allow people not only past the door of your house but also in your home, into the life of your family? Do you invite people into your living room, the formal room immediately beside the front door, or do you invite them into the kitchen where you can be less formal and extend more intimate hospitality? Do people feel they can come to your home only for formal Bible studies or can they come to your home for a personal chat or simply companionship? Do people feel they can drop by at a moment’s notice or do they wait to receive a formal invitation?...

Your house, your time and your home are not yours. They belong to God and need to be fully surrendered to him and to his better, higher purposes.

You can read the rest here.