Some time ago, my minister preached a sermon during which he said something that stuck with me. While I don’t remember what the sermon itself was fully about, I do remember this: “What if the Bible isn’t a book of certainties,” he said, “but a book of encounters?”
Isn’t that awesome?
To me, this is exactly what Jesus called us to (and what he practiced himself)—seeking to encounter others along our journey, and then encountering God through those encounters.
It’s certainly what Shane Claiborne talks about in The Irresistible Revolution. That it’s through meeting people—particularly encounters with people who are different than us, who challenge us, whom society deems wrong or weird or unclean—that real change begins to happen.
Last month I mentioned my wonderful friend, Sara, whom I met years ago while attending a small agricultural college in Alberta. (At the age of 19, I wanted to breed and train racehorses, in case you were wondering.) I talked about Sara’s family, and the hospitality that was offered at both her childhood home, and in her own house now. I followed up with Sara to find out more about this “radical” hospitality—this commitment to opening her home (despite being an introvert!) in order to create and experience wonderful encounters; encounters that change you. Here is some of what she shared with me:
“I enjoyed visitors at our house, short term or long term it was a very normal part of life to have others besides our family in the home. I loved when certain people came because it was a yearly event (I lived at a children’s summer Bible camp from zero to 15—the cook would come late spring and mom would make sure we picked lilacs to decorate her room) and at Christmas time we had the same older lady join us year after year; some visitors were just like traditions. Others were more day-to-day; Sundays after church were always fun as we lived rather remotely during the winters so I thought it was great and ‘just the way it was’ to have people come and hang out, especially if they had kids. We would all share a simple meal of pancakes, every Sunday. Other times random people would drop in to visit our parents, a long ago friend or someone who they had met in passing, or a community member or during summers it was camp staff.
“My parents were both quite content to just have their children and raise a family. The idea of working at an aboriginal group home as house parents or later as a school religion teacher or grassroots pastors starting a church and then camp directors was never what they pictured. They were private and enjoyed their family. But they felt called by God to each job they ended up in—sometimes they felt called by God against their will.”
And here’s where it gets really good:
“When I asked my mom about how she overcame her desire for privacy, she said at each encounter or inconvenient visit where they wanted to be annoyed or felt too tired to face more people or conversations (they did have seven children of their own to care for) they would feel God saying ‘your home is for me to use,’ and when suppers didn’t end up the way mom hoped or more people showed up then she thought she could possibly feed, she felt God say ‘don’t worry about the food—even if it does accidentally consist of pancakes filled with tiny bits of bubble gum.’
“Our house now is very open. Family, friends and visitors can show up early or last minute and if they are fine with the state of life our home is in and whatever we might be throwing together for the next meal they are welcome to stay as long as they want. … It seems our kids feel the same way we do, they usually call out hearty welcomes to those who show up—especially the youngest ones. We do not allow rudeness or apathy towards guests, we teach our kids to say ‘hi,’ and to make eye contact with any who come in though we don’t make them hug or be physical with people. We remind them that people are going through all sorts of things we don’t see and that how we treat people can have a huge impact on them—if they are having a rough day a simple funny slight can be devastating so we discourage any sarcasm or joking at another’s expense and we explain that if God wants to use us, we are hoping to let Him. We don’t want to be selfish with our stuff because relationships are more important than any of that. Not always easy to put into practice. Now we do this with our kids not to ‘teach them something we learned at church’ but because it is, at the core, who God has allowed us to be.”
Sara admits that she’s an introvert at heart (and needs downtime once guests go home), but God has given her the ability to open herself to others. “God has graced me with a pretty laid back personality, discernment and sensitivity to where people are and what they need which makes this type of lifestyle not so hard. It’s definitely because of Him working and living in me though because by nature I’m just about as selfish as they come.”
Wow. Encounters with God. Encounters with others. They are changed and so are we.
I’m pretty sure Sara would say that her life has been a life of encounters. And isn’t that a beautiful thing?
