I can smell the woodpile outside our house burning. The accumulation of dried brush, old leaves, and a tree felled a few months ago. The bonfire crackles in the smoky, damp evening, and suddenly, my stomach lurches, and I’m flung back across the ocean, across time, to Indiana cornfields. To pumpkins and to leaves soContinue reading “On being all there”
Tag Archives: hospitality
Loving your neighbor starts with noticing your neighbor.
Don’t give up chocolate for Lent this year, said Pope Francis. Give up indifference to the poor. “Indifference to our neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.”Describing thisContinue reading “Loving your neighbor starts with noticing your neighbor.”
On confusing Jesus with the Statue of Liberty
“People are confusing the Statue of Liberty and Jesus…But in fact while the real historical Jesus did urge compassion for those in need, but he also said, ‘Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.’ In other words, support government with your taxes because they have a legitimate function like protecting citizens. Those of usContinue reading “On confusing Jesus with the Statue of Liberty”
Gracism: The art of radical inclusion
Oookay that last post ended up going to a much broader audience than I intended! I’m thankful to the people who have kept their comments civil, as this is something the internet discourages us from doing these days. That’s what we Christians do, it’s part of our witness to the watching world. We disagree, butContinue reading “Gracism: The art of radical inclusion”
Hospitality Series: Home
Most people who have lived on the streets are already highly aware of what is going wrong and have had multiple diagnoses assigned to them since childhood. These diagnoses, however helpful at times, can never serve as an inner home. The diagnosis isn’t always a safe place, and it certainly isn’t an identity.
Hospitality series: On Welcoming Muslims
This is a new guest post in the Hospitality Series. This one is on welcoming our Muslim neighbors, and comes from my friend Rachel. I love how she reminds us of the importance of putting aside fear to welcome those who are different, and her honesty in sharing from her own experiences. Definitely worth a read-throughContinue reading “Hospitality series: On Welcoming Muslims”
A second book to help you on your journey (and, so what can I DO??)
If you read Daniel Carroll’s book, you’re probably pretty convinced that as followers of Jesus we need to be showing hospitality and welcome to immigrants. Maybe even if they are here without paperwork. But then, there are probably one-thousand other questions you have: Does helping undocumented immigrants (‘illegal immigrants’) mean that I am breaking theContinue reading “A second book to help you on your journey (and, so what can I DO??)”
Christians at the border: The First book to help you on your journey
Sometimes, you need more than a blog post to figure something out. So in the next two posts, here are two books that can really help you on your journey of digging deeper into what it means to welcome the stranger, and how you can do it practically. Both of these books are fromContinue reading “Christians at the border: The First book to help you on your journey”
Hospitality: Giving more than spare change
Meet Greg Jewell, our first guest poster in the hospitality series! My husband and I got to know Greg and Roxanne Jewell while we were in South Africa. Their South-African-American marriage and dramas with visas were things that connected us, along with their love for children. Greg has graciously agreed to share about the work heContinue reading “Hospitality: Giving more than spare change”
When your neighbor is a stranger: Hospitality Series
I felt so homeless as we trudged through yet another small town in northern Spain on El Camino. Since we had left South Africa at the end of March, we had been walking across Spain, and once we landed it would be another several months of hopping between family and friends before we settled in TexasContinue reading “When your neighbor is a stranger: Hospitality Series”
Stephanie Ebert 