Extending hospitality

Last week, I was thinking about putting things off. You know, "I'll fold those towels tomorrow, or I will put those sheets on the bed later" (maybe that's not the case for some who read this -- you know, deadline oriented people). Nonetheless, it started me thinking about how would we be changed if we were always ready to extend hospitality? How would that affect how we live our lives, and how would it impact others? Just fodder for conversation. I posed the question on Facebook, and I wanted to share a few responses here. I have removed names, but these are comments from my Facebook page:

* "The other half of that thought is how would it change others. The world would have to be a better place."

* "If I was always ready to extend hospitality, I wouldn't be so self-centered. Unfortunately, it is a hard thing to not think about how things relate to me. I strive to have a more Christ-centered life."

* "I always used to get a good feeling putting up my fellow swing dancers for an evening after a dance in Baltimore so they didn't have to drive to DC that night...and then feeding them a full breakfast w/eggs, toast and coffee. Though I (we) can't do that very much anymore with kinder in the house, I still have the hospitality chip in my brain. May I never lose it."

* "Yes, the hospitality chip for home is in my brain. Imagine if everyone was polite and followed the golden rules. As someone else wrote, it would make "the world a better place" if we had world hospitality, kind of like the movie "Pay it Forward". Great movie if you haven't seen it.

* "An amazingly profound question!"

What would you add to this? How would your life be changed if you lived in such a way that you were always ready to extend hospitality? How do we respond to hospitality shown to us?

Jimmy