Job Shuts Up

Today is Halloween, but because we don't celebrate it the word is kind of foreign in our home to the younger ones.  Each year we offer an alternative celebration in the spirit of the reformers as it is actually Reformation Day, where we remember what Martin Luther did in 1517, nailing the 95 theses to the door of the Catholic church.  Many reformers came after him, John Calvin, John  Wycliffe, and others.  It is an awesome opportunity to explain to my kids who these famous men are and what they did for us as some died martyr's deaths.

However, the irony is, the word "Halloween" keeps coming up because the little ones can't understand why we're having people over tonight, on a Monday night.  So, our bigger ones keep saying, "Well, it's because of Halloween....."  My youngest said, "Who is Halloween?"  I guess he figured it was a new friend he hadn't met yet!  I actually loved that.

As usual, whenever we have people over, I always wish we had a more finished home....baseboards, trim, holes in floors covered!  But then, I had a good lesson given to me about that on Friday night that reminded me, it isn't about me and my home, it's about fellowship, friendship and serving others. When it is about me, then it is no longer hospitality, but entertainment.  The Bible doesn't call us to entertain, but to be hospitable.

Since we've been at our new church, we've been invited over to one person's home as a whole family. No one else has been brave enough to have our entire family over.  I suppose it is a little intimidating, ten people.  It was like that at just about every church we've been to - only a few families were willing to attempt to have all of us over.

But on Friday, we were invited for dinner!  Who would be so brave?  An 85 year old man and his 81 year old wife.  How sweet is that?!  This older couple must have worked all day on the dinner they put together for us.  They had so many different dishes of food, it could have been a Christmas dinner.  We were all stuffed.

The fellowship was amazing.  One thing the great-grandmother of 17 said to me was, "No one does hospitality anymore."  She talked about days gone by where you could just show up on someone's door and be invited in for tea or coffee.  She said, "That never happens now.  Everyone is too busy." So true.

After church, there really is no way to get to know people.  The older gentleman said, "You can't get to know people after church!  You've got to have them in your home!  That's how you get to know people!"  He was adamant.  And truly, such nice, gracious people.  I really could have listened to them all night.

They were hog farmers their whole lives.  To mark their life transitions, they had pictures on their walls of all the homes they had lived in.  What a good idea, I thought.  The first picture was of the old shack they lived in when they were first married.  It had no running water or electricity.  They lived there 12 years.  Over time, they slowly got more modern improvements, but they put up with a lot of inconvenience for a long time!  Then they moved to the farmhouse which seemed a lot cozier.  They lived on 100 acres for most of their marriage.  At 65, they moved to the house we visited in - custom built in their retirement years.  It was so good to see their life and the challenges they must have had without them hardly saying a word about the downtimes.

That is what hospitality does - it opens up a window into someone's life and ministers to another person without even using words!  Of course we did talk a lot about all their children and their grandchildren and even their great-grandchildren.  They have a legacy of faith which was so encouraging, too.  Even with a few prodigals they have in the following generations, this brave great-grandma challenges her great-grandchildren to live a life of faith.  She knows ultimately she can only pray, which is what my mom does and my grandma did, too.

All that from hospitality.  At the end of the night, because she had cooked so much, she sent us home with lots of food.  What a blessing!

What did my kids do all night?  I had brought a lot of young ones!  I wasn't certain they would have toys, but I should have known....all good grandparents keep toys for the little ones to come!  They had a whole basement full of toys, riding cars, scooters, pool tables, air hockey....!  Since we left, every morning my younger ones ask, "When can we go back to their house?!"  They loved visiting!

So, I was challenged to stop thinking about myself and what my home looks like to outsiders and just to keep having people over, whether my house is finished or not.  I just need to keep having people over, no matter what.  Knowing how blessed I felt when I left makes me want to offer that to others.

I'm not any different than Job in a way.  I know the comparison may be a little bit of a stretch.  But he did a lot of complaining throughout the whole book of Job.  And sometimes I find myself complaining in my spirit about all that I want to change in my life or in my home or in my situation. Job wasn't complaining about the things I was complaining about.  His complaints were on a much higher level, having lost children, homes, servants, animals and then afflicted by physical pain....yet he challenged God.  At the end, he got quite the rebuke, basically asking, "Who do you think you are?!"  God said to him, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?"  When I read that today, I thought to myself, "Who do I think I am that I have to have a perfect house?  How dare I complain about anything?"  I can be so obnoxious sometimes!

Job confessed at the end of the book that he really shouldn't have gone on and on about matters he didn't understand.  He was remorseful and ashamed, "...therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."

I want to be like these gracious hosts,  And I need to be a little more like Job, put in my place and grateful to God for who He is and all that I do have....AND....grateful, too, for the reason there is even a reason to have people over tonight.  The Reformers gave their all which is why we even have access to the Scriptures......Job says, "Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand......."  In other words, "I get it, I get it!  I will just be quiet now....."  Me too.