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Praying about the emotions of hospitality

Lynne Baab • Tuesday June 13 2023

“Hospitality . . . is a feeling: genuine, welcoming, generous, restorative, safe. —Bethany Jean Clement, Seattle Times staff writer

I captured that quotation because I loved the list of descriptors the author uses. I thought her words were marvelous fuel for prayers about being hospitable. However, the more I thought about it, the more questions I had.

One way to look at this quotation is that Clement is describing the feelings evoked in the person receiving hospitality. However, those feelings usually also a play a role for the giver of hospitality.

Before I dive deeper into the questions the quotation raised for me, let me...

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Prayers of releasing/receiving/returning while walking

Lynne Baab • Tuesday June 6 2023

Twenty years ago, in August, I marked my six-year anniversary as an associate pastor at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Seattle. A couple of things happened in 2003 that felt like nudges from God, briefly bringing to my awareness that perhaps I was approaching the time to leave that pastoral position. I did my best to ignore those nudges because I REALLY did not want to leave. I loved the congregation, my colleagues, and my ministry responsibilities.

In December 2003, Dave and I went on vacation to San Francisco, and I walked the outdoor labyrinth at Grace Cathedral. I had visited the cathedral...

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Hospitality and prayer

Lynne Baab • Tuesday May 30 2023

I wonder what comes to mind when you hear the word “hospitality.” Hosting people in your home for meals or overnight? Perhaps larger-scale hospitality events like meals at church for church members or the wider community? In your mind, does hospitality usually or always involve food?

I recently taught a class on spiritual practices for a Christian university. My students were all in their thirties or forties. In the online discussion about hospitality, two of my students wrote about how they are perfectly comfortable hosting their kids' friends. However, when the parents or other adults show up, these two students said they...

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Simplicity and prayer

Lynne Baab • Tuesday May 23 2023

God of beauty and peace, help me to uncomplicate and untangle my life so I can focus on what really matters.

In that prayer for simplicity, I am using Adele Ahlberg Calhoun’s words from her wonderful Spiritual Disciplines Handbook. She writes that our desire in embracing the spiritual practice of simplicity is “to uncomplicate and untangle my life so I can focus on what really matters.” [1] I love that the words “uncomplicate and untangle” can refer to many things: our physical possessions that can feel overwhelmingly cluttered, our schedule that can feel endlessly complicated, and our relationships that can feel hopelessly...

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