So today, we learned about hospitality as a spiritual discipline. The bible says to do onto others as you would want them to do to you, and the second greatest commandmant, is to love your neighbour.
in the morning we went to Union park, where we had birthday cake (it was my birthday yesterday), and Krista talked for a bit, then gave us our assignment. To be hospitable to others in a new way. So after going back to Jesus People (see other entries) for a quick lunch, Kyle and I headed down town.
When we got there, we pulled out 2 signs that I had made, and walked around the busier areas. There we gave out free Hugs. We hugged a variety of people, from a guy in a wheelchair, to a Crossing Guard, to a Man working on building the set for Oprah's Season opener (that was for you mom).
A lot of people commented on it, talking about how they thought it was a neat idea. We got into a conversation with a trolley driver, who liked it because it reminded him of the compassion he used to see before the city took away free trolley rides. We also got a couple of people that said things like "That's just creepy"
For a little bit, I was just standing there, and on the other side of the sidewalk was a group of teenaged guys, trying to pressure eachother into hugging me (it was a big sidewalk). One guy actually offered another guy (Seen in the above picture) 5 bucks if he'd hug me, but sadly nothing happened).
While we were walking, Amp Representatives were offering free Amp Energy Drinks (energy drinks based on Mountain Dew), which I liked, but Kyle didn't. We offered to give them a hug, but they said no.
In the end, after 2 hours of walking around, we started to head back because our arms were sore from carrying the sign, and our feet hurt, so we decided to head home through Millenium Park. Where we gave some of our last hugs (the only other hug was to a woman in a military uniform). before heading home.
Final Count:
Kyle: 29 (with additional bonus marks for hugging a girl fresh out of the water park)
me:31 (with additional marks for hugging a homeless man, a pat on the back, and a wierd handshake)
Is it important to count acts of hospitality?
ReplyDeletenot at all, we just did it because people were asking us how many hugs we'd given out, so we figured out how many we had given before, then continued counting, for future reference.
ReplyDeletethanks for offering yourself as examples of God's love...often when it comes to hospitality we also recieve much.
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