“You are still carrying anger towards this place.”

These words from a mentor and colleague cut to the quick and reflected actions that others had overlooked.

He was right. Even after years of recovery, healing, and rebuilding from a ministry position and place, I still carried anger in my heart towards this place, and it leaked out.

As I listened to his words, they both cut and invited. They were painful to hear and needed. He could see what had taken residence in my soul and said something. My response was, “Tell me more of what you see.”

When we think of welcome and hospitality, we imagine the welcome of a friend in their home, a community feast, or a hotel while traveling. You likely are not thinking of the story I just shared–a friend who calls out something ugly in you, and yet something about the truth of their words makes you want to hear more, even if deeply painful and unsettling.

However, when we talk about welcome, it is more than a place outside of us. Welcome is also the place inside of us. It is where our heart, mind, body, and soul reside, and about what resides within those places. It is about where our soul lingers, where our mind goes, how our heart responds, and what our body carries. This includes both wonderful things and hard things. Welcome is embodied inside and out. 

While hospitality has been practiced from physical needs to celebrations, the Biblical practice of hospitality moves us beyond these spaces and towards the places where strangers and friends both reside, familiar to all of humanity. The places of residence include the stories of shame that have taken residence in our minds, pains in our bodies that have moved in without permission, the concerns of loved ones that linger each day, or the broken promises of churches and countries. Every single human being carries uninvited pain and brokenness that has made its home in us, welcomed or not.

The work of welcome hospitality includes the restoration and repair of these places. This work includes deliberately moving towards others so that their pain might be met with empathetic compassion, their needs fulfilled, their brokenness healed, and ultimately, relationships repaired. It is what Jesus does as he moves towards Peter on the beach after his resurrection, and this is what Christ still does so with us millennia later.

While hospitality has been practiced from physical needs to celebrations, the Biblical practice of hospitality moves us beyond these spaces and towards the places where strangers and friends both reside, familiar to all of humanity. Share on X

In John 21, we find Jesus eating with his disciples on the beach after his resurrection. He specifically calls out to Peter, and as Peter denied Jesus three times (John 18), Jesus restores Peter through a call and response three times (John 21).

• Jesus: “Simon¹*Editorial Note: Notice that Jesus has returned to calling him Simon, not Peter, his ‘new name’ which was linked to his vocational call to build God’s church. This name choice, as with everything of Jesus, is intentional. ~CK son of John, do you love me?”*
• Peter: “Yes, Lord. You know that I love you.”
• Jesus: “Feed my sheep / Tend my sheep.”

Times three.

The third and final time Jesus asks this of Peter, John notes that Peter is grieved or distressed as the question is asked again (John 21:17). We do not know the pain or distress that Peter is experiencing, but we do know it was deeply present just below the surface. And I wonder that even though Jesus knew Peter loved him, Peter needed to know that he loved Jesus. Three times denying. Three times he had to repeat that he loved him, and three times Jesus was inviting him to live into his calling–to feed and tend to his sheep.

Jesus was restoring Peter to himself. And he was restoring the inner parts of Peter that were carrying any blame, shame, and whatever else caused him to hide in the upper room when Jesus died. And not only did Jesus restore Peter to himself and within himself, but to a grand and sweeping mission to shepherd his flock. Christ’s welcome of all the parts of Peter, his full restoration of love and acceptance, and the persistent–yet somehow gentle–call to sacrifical, missional engagement in building the Kingdom of God were the welcoming way of Jesus towards Peter. 

This welcoming way of Jesus is extended just the same towards us.

Reflect on the following questions:

• Where do you need repair and restoration? 
• Will you welcome all the parts of yourself as Jesus shows you the places of repair and restoration needed?
• How might you hear his call for healing and purpose?

As we look to the example of the promise of Jesus’ goodness to restore in welcome all of us, here are five helpful practices to welcome the restoration of Christ in our souls:

1. Cultivate a posture of welcoming the words of friends. Do this by noticing the places you resist and receive another’s words, and where there are echoes from other voices, including Jesus.
2. Expect there will be pain at times. Hear me out: The process of repair rarely feels good. And yet when it comes from a sincere place of love, it will be ultimately be good. And yet, don’t turn off your brain, but use wisdom to discern that the words of repair offered align with Jesus’ heart and teaching in the gospels.
3. Anticipate there will be goodness coming. The promises of Jesus include greater freedom, peace, and joy. Anticipate this truth, and look for it on the horizon of your life.
4. Choose to live into the good gifts and purposes of God. This means we live out our own restoration tangibly and with action, embracing the purposes God has for us towards others.
5. Be a friend who seeks to create spaces of welcome for heart, mind, body, and soul. Listen deeply, look intently, and speak words of life and love.

May we live like Jesus, who welcomes every part of us in love, leading us towards freedom and continued good work in the world. 

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Cultivate a posture of welcoming the words of friends. Do this by noticing the places you resist and receive another’s words, and where there are echoes from other voices, including Jesus. Share on X