Henri Nouwen wrote, “True hospitality is welcoming the stranger on her own terms. This kind of hospitality can only be offered by those who’ve found the center of their lives in their own hearts.”
It is as true in America as almost everywhere you read about–this lack of hospitality. This urge to separate into those who are like me versus those who are not.
When we worry more about outward things–ours and those we meet and those whom we merely read about–then we have lost the heart.
Jesus always cared more about the heart of those he met than he did about ethnic identity, gender identity, social diseases.
Among the first conversion stories circulated among the followers were Phillip and a black man and Peter and a Roman. Already in the first years on their own, Jesus followers were breaking free of stereotype.
We can all do the same by finding our center in our hearts. It all begins with me, now, where I am, and with whom I interact. One person at a time around the globe.
Faith Venture 
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