Last week Tom and I held a fun Facebook live discussion on hospitality. It stirred a lot of interest and the sharing of wonderful stories about the ways that God blesses all of us through the sharing of hospitality. One such story was shared by my friend Anika Magwood-Van Branteghem. Anika is Flemish originally from Belgium, but I met her as a nurse on the Mercy Ship M/V Anastasis and have thoroughly enjoyed keeping in touch over the years. She loved the discussion on hospitality as a doorway to the kingdom and commented that generosity goes hand in hand with that. She then shared the following beautiful story.
Many decades ago I was starting dinner preps and with 5 children, I usually would bake 7 large potatoes and 7 pieces of fish or meat. I was a very busy mom with 5 children and involved in their schools and church often. Our finances were meager so food was often prayed-in, but generosity is something the Lord emphasized in me and He had me obey through hospitality often.
This one day as I prepared dinner, I kept adding food to my usual portions without thinking about it. Near dinner time my husband, John, returned from cutting wood in the forest with a young couple we did not know. He had found them alone sitting by their broken car on a rural road. This was before cellphones etc. He invited them to come to our house and have dinner while trying out to get help for the car.
So here we had unexpected company, but the Lord had guided my hands to prepare extra potatoes, meat and veggies….just enough for 2 more people. After dinner friends went and helped with the car and we never saw them again! We have often wondered if they were angels? But for sure we were able to share the love of Jesus with them. We always read scripture after dinner, so they heard the Word of God as well. If they were not angels, the Lord certainly sent them to our home as a door to the Kingdom.
Another reader, David del Valle, commented:
We were privileged to have grown up in a home where hospitality was a core value. We were poor, but there was also room at the table for friends and family. It was quite typical for Puerto Ricans of low means. Low on the economic scale but high in hospitality. Fond memories of those moments.
Both these stories highlight something I frequently observe. We don’t have to be rich to be hospitable. In fact it is often those who are low on the economic scale who are high in hospitality. I have been blessed with incredible hospitality in Haiti and Ghana and Mexico by people who were poor economically but rich in relationships. In fact studies show that as people move up the economic ladder they often give up relationships for productivity. For many of us, radical hospitality, as portrayed in the Bible, where we reach beyond our families and close community to entertain strangers, is hard. Busyness and prestige often make us feel there is no time to be hospitable or that our homes don’t look good enough to invite others into. Or we are afraid strangers will steal our possessions. Or we think we need to prepare special food or stretch our budget to create some exotic meal.
Radical hospitality is not like that. Radical hospitality is about sharing the little we have, humble as it may be, with whoever comes to our door and allowing God to both expand it and make it special. I am sure that the couple who shared potatoes and vegetables with Anika and her family, felt they had been blessed with a very special meal. They probably thought that Anika and John were angels too.
Hospitality is about sharing our lives not just our food, with others too. That’s part of the reason for the cookbook we are compiling as part of our emphasis on Embracing the Wild Hospitality of God. Please consider contributing recipes and stories of how God generously provided for you and for others through you.
Please take the time to watch the video on how hospitality has been a part of Tom and I’s lives and marriage. I hope it inspires you to reach out and embrace the God of radical hospitality and find a doorway into the kingdom as a result for you too.
Do you enjoy providing hospitality? Do you have a go-to recipe you turn to time and again? We would love to hear about it! We are collecting recipes across our Godspace community for our first-ever cookbook. Send your recipe written in your own words, where it came from, and why it’s special to you to godspacelight@gmail.com – if you send 3 or more recipes in, you will receive a FREE digital copy of the finished cookbook! For more information check out this post: https://tinyurl.com/GodspaceCommunityCookbook
A contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taize. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756.
“Bring Your Peace”
Words and music by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
“Bless the Lord”
Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé
“Seek Ye First”
By Karen Lafferty Copyright 1972 Maranatha! Music
“Litany of the Beatitudes”
Text and music by Kester Limner, 2022, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
“When He Cometh (Jewels)”
Thank you for praying with us! www.saintandrewsseattle.org
Ok so I’d never heard of Farmworker Appreciation Day before it appeared on the Godspace email, but it has really made me think. In fact the National Farmworkers Ministry has a whole week in March where is brings about awareness of farmworkers. Check out this site – https://nfwm.org/news/nfaw-2022/. This site tells you a bit about its history – https://nationaltoday.com/farmworker-appreciation-day/ But really all these “national days” should be a kickstarter to get us thinking not just a “do today and then forget about it/them”
My friend, Eric, is a cowman. He’s been a cowman most of his life. He turned 60 this year. He works long very physical hours and only gets every other weekend off. His pay is not great and he cannot retire until he reaches the statutory retirement age.
But for Eric, at least he lives in the UK. For those bringing our food from elsewhere or who have been trafficked to work over here, their conditions can be terrible. But we expect our shops and supermarkets and doorstep deliveries to have a large variety of food at a price we can afford. But how often do we think how it got to us? We cannot appreciate something if we don’t even think about how it got to us.
No one stood on their doorsteps to clap the farmworkers here in the UK. It was good to clap the NHS workers because covid hit them hard. But for the farmworkers, they had to keep going too. For those who supplied the hospitality industry, many lost their jobs. Now people moan that no one wants to pick the fruit and veg that itinerant workers used to do; many of whom have stopped their travelings for a while because of various issues that are too much to go into in this post and would detract from what today is all about.
But actually as Joni Mitchel sang once “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” [Big Yellow Taxi – 1970] this is what happened with the farmworkers. No one realised what they did or how hard they worked, and often would moan about the “influx of foreigners.” But those foreigners picked our fruit and veg. Now we are noticing with the war between Russia and Ukraine that much of Europe’s grain comes from Ukraine. Firstly did we really know that? How often do we take the time to work out where our food does come from? And second did we ever really appreciate those workers?
As with my friend, Eric, who works 48 weeks of the year, 6 days a week, we don’t give him or others like him a thought. We just expect milk to make it to our supermarkets/doorstep. And often in our way of not really knowing the hows and whys of things we can be critical of how farming is done, bemoan methods we know very little about.
Yes it would be great if all the milk cows could live in fields and all the food we need be grown without pesticides, but are we willing to pay those extra costs? Pay for the extra hours it takes to bring cows back and forth from fields? Support farmers and farmworkers if they made less on their crops?
I do go to the local farm shop, get my veg from Oddbox which takes the fruit and veg the supermarkets reject, have a milkman who delivers in glass bottles. But I also have a husband who earns a decent wage so we can afford all this.
But whether we buy from a cheap supermarket or an expensive farm shop how often do we think to appreciate all the work that has gone into growing our food? When we say “grace” do we think to not just thank God for our food but thank the people who worked hard to produce our food; who worked the land, dealt with weeds and pesticides, had aching muscles due to the physical side of their work, and all those other things that go on to produce our “daily bread.”
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Enjoy this FREE download – a compilation of all the beautiful art, poetry, stories and more that made up our Artful Julybilee. Explore what it means to live as Christ lived through the lens of art – with contributions by many of our authors. All in one beautiful booklet – visit our shop for more info!
It’s a brand new month! New beginnings!
I love them!
This month, BE KIND TO YOURSELF!
Take time to practice that!
Notice when you aren’t being kind to yourself!
When you are pushing too hard!
When you aren’t saying kind things to yourself
Or about yourself!
Our inner dialogue matters!
BE KIND TO YOURSELF THIS MONTH!
Make it a practice!
I know some people are starting their holidays while others are busy getting folks back to school.
But take time to NOTICE where you really are!
BE KIND to yourself!
BE COMPASSIONATE NOT JUDGMENTAL ( as my therapist likes to remind me)
Notice your life
Notice your emotions, your feelings, your needs.
Breathe
Stop
Notice
Ask for help
Tell the truth
What do you need this month so you can be kind to yourself?
PRACTICE:
Why not write down 3 things you can do to be kind to yourself in August.
I’ll start: Go to bed on time. Take time to create. More time with friends.
And write down 3 things you need to STOP doing in order to BE KIND to yourself this month!
Ok..that’s harder! stop checking my phone first thing in the morning. stop with the critical self talk, stop freaking out over things out of my control.
What could life look like and feel like if we were were KIND to ourselves as a spiritual practice this month?
What if we gave ourselves hospitality so that we can give others hospitality? What does a personal hospitality practice look like?
What does giving yourself hospitality look like? A picnic, A bubble bath, a long walk, a date to a bookstore, some fresh flowers? That’s a great thing to journal about this weekend.
In order to truly experience hospitality for ourselves we need to remember how loved we are! The Creator of the entire universe LOVES YOU AND ME!
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” JESUS John 15:9
Take time to check out other verses about God’s love for you.
And remember that taking care of yourself & being kind to yourself IS NOT BEING SELFISH! It is honoring the beautiful creation of God!
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. PSALM 19:14
thanks for the inspiration toimarie!
toimarie.com
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
Did you know? If you visit our Seasons and Blessings Resource Page, there is a whole section on Back-to-School resources listed under the Autumn column! We have gathered prayers and practical resources to help you mentally and spiritually prepare yourself and your kids for the school year ahead. You might also enjoy checking out this free downloadable book of prayers for children, found in our shop.
by Carol Dixon
‘Then God looked at everything he had made.
It was very beautiful, so very good!’ [Book of Books by Trevor Dennis]
The other day I posted one of David Adam’s beautiful prayers about caring for God’s world on Godspacelight in response to Louise Connor’s reflection “Back” and its Stories and I thought it would be good to tell a bit of the story behind David’s lovely prayer.
Recently my daily devotions have been taken from some of the Celtic writers and their care for the world we live in. I was blest to meet Canon David Adam, a prolific writer on Celtic spirituality, when he was the vicar of Lindisfarne and to see his living spirituality in action firsthand as he prayed and taught in the church there. Afterward we shared some memories of growing up in Northumberland – we were both from the town of Alnwick. Although David was 10 years older than me, many of our memories of our hometown and the countryside around it in the mid part of the 20th century were the same and we both shared a love of the beauty of the world God created.
Alnwick in the 1950s (Old postcard)
It seemed a simpler time then in the early 1950s, post World War 2, when people didn’t have much and what we had we often shared with our neighbours. There didn’t seem to be the striving towards acquiring more and more possessions and most people were in the same boat – rationing was a great leveler – and there wasn’t as much plastic about. Both our mothers carried string shopping bags for their daily shop and the weekly groceries were delivered by a boy on a bicycle in a cardboard box on the front of it (it must have taken him ages to deliver everything!). The travelling shop stopped in each street once a week and the fishmonger brought round locally caught fish door to door and for the rest of the fresh items we went for the daily ‘messages’ to the butchers, bakers etc. (no fridges in those days), while the milkman was up early in the morning to deposit a glass milk bottle on each doorstep. I was delighted to discover that his grandfather was the lamplighter whom my granny used to tell me came round at 8pm every night just after curfew sounded on the Town Hall clock in Market Place. We agreed that it wasn’t all idyllic though – most of the buildings were a sooty black from the coal fires and the fields on the edge of town smelled strongly of invasive fertiliser in early spring to encourage the crops to grow in the cold northeast climate – perhaps that is why he came to care so much for the environment round us.
In his final book Love The World David traces the history of the universe and encourages us to care for the Earth. He invites us to look upon our planet and care for it as God does.
In the chapter on Grasses, he writes ‘grasses grow from their base… So they are almost indestructible surviving fire, flood, frost and drought, grazing animals and mowing by humans. Grasslands support and sustain more animals than any other habitat… Let us remember that includes us.‘ and he continues with a poem.
Photo by Gary Fultz on Unsplash
Lament for a hay meadow.
The year the farmer ploughed the hay meadow
I felt bereft; it had been there since my birth.
Machinery had done its work
And the creatures had lost their home.
Sweet grasses, corn cockle and bunting,
Lark song from the sky,
The yellow buttercup and the bees,
All disappeared without time for goodbye.
Lady’s mantle and her bedstraw,
The oxeye daisies and the camomile,
Never to be seen anymore.
To lose flowers, birds and creatures
Feel like a total eclipse of the sun. [© David Adam]
Photo by Chinh Le Duc on Unsplash
A prayer
Creator God
We are astounded at your care for the world,
For each tiny bird and bush,
plant and person, insect and animal;
For each star and constellation in the immensity
Of the beautiful universe that you created;
And as you looked at everything you had made
You saw that it was good.
Help us to look upon our earth and its people
With the same love and learn to care for it
as you care for all things, from the greatest to the least
So that we leave our planet ‘as good as new’
For future generations who come after us
So they may see that everything is beautiful
As you intended.
(© Carol Dixon – based on ‘God makes the world’ from The Book of Books – The Bible retold for young people by Trevor Dennis)
My friend (& co-writer for Godspacelight) Sheila Hamil has written a wonderful song about seeing the world with God’s eyes which she is delighted for me to share with you.
May it be our prayer too.
Painting of the Earth from space, Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash
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Return to Our Senses explores approaches to prayer that connect our spiritual practices to everyday life, awakening all our senses to a deeper relationship to our loving God. Some of the practices have existed for centuries and only require us to tap into the rich knowledge and practices of ancient followers of Christ to access them. Others will be newly created, springing fresh from our imaginations and creativity, specially designed for intimacy with God in our present culture. This is a great book for group study.
Available in paperback or to download – the download version comes with a free study guide! Also available bundled with breath cards. See more in our shop!
by Melissa Taft
Editor’s Note: This is now CLOSED for submissions. Thank you to those who contributed, and stay tuned for more information!
You may have heard by now that Godspace is putting together a cookbook, and we are looking for submissions. You might know about our fabulous Hospitality Resource Page and the many recipes therein – wouldn’t it be lovely to have it all at the tip of your fingers? Plus recipes from our authors and Godspace family – and maybe even YOU!
We are hoping to gather this resource over the next two months as part of our theme Embracing the Wild Hospitality of God and have it available for purchase in time for Christmas!
Over the years Christine has generously shared many of her famous recipes, and is excited to gather them together in one spot and support the work that Godspace is doing at the same time. What a lovely gift it would make for so many situations -newlyweds, new cooks, new adults, old friends, that one aunt who always brings the same thing and it doesn’t get eaten except for polite bites at the family potlucks but maybe if they could just find some better recipes it would work out better for them and this could help, your college buddy, the sky is the limit.
So how can you help your aunt AND Godspace at the same time? Send in some recipes! For those who contribute three or more recipes, you will receive a FREE downloadable copy. We truly want this to be a Godspace community effort, embracing the wild hospitality of our community and thusly God’s hospitality as we share a virtual smörgåsbord. As Christine has said, “Do you have a favourite recipe or two you would like to contribute? We really do want this to be representative of the Godspacelight community and would love it if some of our readers are able to contribute too. We are particularly interested in original recipes or those passed down from family members, like my grandmother’s shortbread recipe.” There’s something wonderful about a recipe that has love and meaning behind it; a history. With that in mind, here are the guidelines:
- Send your recipes to godspacelight@gmail.com by September 30th
- The directions must be in your own words, no matter where you got it from.
- If your recipe has an origin other than your own creativity, be sure to attribute it correctly – tell us where it comes from! (See below for more on recipe attribution)
- Tell us why this recipe is important to you. How do you use it? When do you use it? Is it special because it’s a family heirloom? Is it good for feeding a crowd? Just a few sentences please – a paragraph will usually do, though a sentence or two is fine!
As you can see we want this to be more than just a set of ingredients and instructions – we want to get a flavor of our global community and make it something truly special, something we can all be proud of and turn to time and again for encouragement and ideas. As Christine said, “This is an invitation to all our readers so please consider inviting your friends to contribute too. Are you a vegetarian, a vegan or a meat eater? What decisions shape your life and the food you eat? How do you incorporate seasonal foods? How do these decisions impact your life? These are all aspects of the wild hospitality of God that we would love to draw together in this book.”
As far as being able to publish and use the recipe, what we basically need is for you to give us the instructions in your own words and to tell us where it’s adapted from. That’s all it boils down to! The ingredients and measurements can obviously stay the same, and there’s only so many ways you can say “pulse the dough”, but both to publish and because we want to hear this recipe from YOU, from your heart to our stomachs, we want to know how you make what it is you make. So tell us in your own words. And tell us where it came from: “recipe adapted from my mom,” “recipe adapted from this website,” “original recipe in this cookbook, adapted here” etc. David Lebovitz elucidates more here:
The answer is that you cannot cut and paste content directly from one website onto another (yours) unless you have their permission. If you wish to republish someone else’s recipe, you should do what newspapers and magazines do and “adapt” the recipe, which means that you’re not just changing a few words around, but actually completely rewriting the recipe in your own words, explaining how you made the recipe.
And that is what we want – how YOU made the recipe. You, our treasured Godspace readers, authors, community. One of the recipes I’ll be including is our family’s lemon bar recipe, which comes from a cookbook that was hand-typed and hand-bound at some point in the 1920’s or 1930’s as a fundraiser for my great-grandma’s church ministry. Hand-drawn illustrations, poems, and the like adorned the pages along with stories and no-nonsense no-context recipes. My great-grandma passed it to my grandma, who passed it to my mother, who passed it to my sister. But we all have a copy of those lemon bars, as they have long been a family staple! And that’s what this cookbook reminds me of. Family treasures and community, embracing hospitality with wild abandon. Cheers!
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Enjoy this FREE download – a compilation of all the beautiful art, poetry, stories and more that made up our Artful Julybilee. Explore what it means to live as Christ lived through the lens of art – with contributions by many of our authors. All in one beautiful booklet – visit our shop for more info!
by guest Margery Tate via Carol Dixon
Summer Song
Summer suns are glowing …
Prayer
Loving God, we praise you for this beautiful season of summer.
We praise you for the gift of this day and for the beauty all around us.
We praise you for buttercups and wildflowers in the meadows, sparkling streams and blue skies.
We praise you loving God for summer.
Thoughts of summer…
“Spring flew swiftly by, and summer came; and if the village had been beautiful at first, it was now in the full glow and luxuriance of its richness. The great trees, which had looked shrunken and bare in the earlier months, had now burst into strong life and health; and stretching forth their green arms over the thirsty ground, converted open and naked spots into choice nooks, where was a deep and pleasant shade from which to look upon the wide prospect, steeped in sunshine, which lay stretched out beyond. The earth had donned her mantle of brightest green; and shed her richest perfumes abroad. It was the prime and vigour of the year; all things were glad and flourishing.” Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
“Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from your window, and know that this was the first real time of freedom and living; this was the first morning of summer.” Ray Bradbury
Hymn – Morning Has Broken (Words: Eleanor Farjeon; Music: Bunessan – Scottish melody)
“Consider the lilies of the field, they toil not neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Luke 12 v 27
“If God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow won’t he more surely care for you?”
Guided meditation in a summer meadow
Picture yourself in a beautiful summer meadow, surrounded by wildflowers, you can hear birds a little way off and you know that you are completely safe.
You can feel the warmth of the sun on your face and body. Just lie here for a moment and enjoy this wonderful place of peace and calm. Notice the scent of grass and flower. Hear the gentle hum of insects and bees. Feel the texture of the grass. As you lie gently on the soft grass and feel supported by the earth and warmed by the sun, know that you have everything you need.
Be still in God’s presence
Companions Prayer (by Brother Lawrence)
O God here we are all devoted to you, make us according to your heart.
In Christ make us one that the world may believe, mould us according to your heart.
Name your friends and family and picture them sitting in the summer meadow and Jesus speaking his words of wisdom and comfort….
Pray for our fellow Godspacelight writers… giving thanks for the spiritual substance they bring in their varied reflections….
Prayer for others…
Pray for those for whom summer hasn’t come and whose days are hard and living a constant struggle. Picture Jesus, coming to each of them, to enfold them in his love.
Call to mind scenes of devastation then, recall the scene from the Chronicles of Narnia, when Aslan flies over the frozen earth and as he passes, life springs up anew in all its wonder and beauty.
Give thanks to God who says I make all things new.
Thoughts of Brother Lawrence Day 21
“There is not in the world a way of life more sweet nor more delightful than continual converse with God.”
Hymn – In Heavenly Love Abiding
1 In heavenly love abiding,
no change my heart shall fear;
and safe is such confiding,
for nothing changes here:
the storm may roar without me,
my heart may low be laid;
but God is round about me,
and can I be dismayed?
2 Wherever he may guide me,
no want shall turn me back;
my shepherd is beside me,
and nothing can I lack:
his wisdom ever waketh,
his sight is never dim;
he knows the way he taketh,
and I will walk with him.
3 Green pastures are before me,
which yet I have not seen;
bright skies will soon be o’er me,
where the dark clouds have been:
my hope I cannot measure,
my path to life is free;
my Saviour has my treasure,
and he will walk with me.
– Anna Laetitia Waring (1823-1910) 7 6 7 6 D
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FB Live!
Join Christine Sine and Tom Sine for a lively discussion on Hospitality as the doorway to the kingdom – Wednesday August 3rd at 9 am PT. Happening live in the Godspace Light Community Group on Facebook – but if you can’t catch the live discussion, you can catch up later on YouTube!
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!