The Hospitable Leader DevotionalSample

In the time of Nehemiah, the people of God had fallen away from the Lord. They were living in sin and had forgotten the commandments of God, as so frequently happened (and still happens), but Ezra the priest brought out the book of the law and read it aloud. The people of Israel heard the law and wept because of how they had transgressed their covenant with God. At this moment, we may expect the people of God to experience the condemnation of God, or the need to self-flagellate and discipline themselves because of their sin. However, this isn’t what they are commanded to do: they’re commanded to “eat and drink,” to “celebrate with great joy.”

Now, the first step was for them to acknowledge their sin and posture themselves in a repentant way, turning away from their covenant-breaking ways. However, our “strength” doesn’t come from mourning and self-hatred; our strength is in the “joy of the lord.” Because this joy is their strength, they are to go find the best, “choice”-est food and sweet drinks, and share them with their friends. This, clearly, was an essential part of what it meant to be successful in living out their calling as God’s people.

Too frequently we think that if we do serious work, we must always be serious. And perhaps we must always be serious, but we must be serious about partying, amongst many other things. What does it look like for all of our intent seriousness to be pointed toward picking out the choicest meats to share with our friends and our followers, our families and our leaders? The antidote to heightened seriousness isn’t to be less serious, the antidote is to be serious about the right things. To be serious about having fun and celebrating; to be serious about creating warm, feasting environments; to be serious about letting the joy of the lord being our strength.

As hospitable leaders, we are to fulfill our God-given calling in the context of celebration about being a part of the plans of God for the world! What could be more joyous?