Welcome

J mentioned in Saturday's post that I'm heading to Washington this week for DAR.  I think I've talked before about paging (Pages are DAR members under 40 who sort of keep things running smoothly behind the scenes during our meetings).  This week I'll be paging for the Guest Hospitality Committee.  This is my third year working with this committee at Continental Congress, and I really enjoy it.  Basically, our committee welcomes guests to Constitution Hall prior to business and evening sessions.  The evening sessions are particularly busy since that is when most of our award recipients come. 

Anyhow, today's sermon really spoke to me in light of my paging assignment this week.  The scripture reading for the day was Matthew 10:40-42.  The part that our priest focused on was in verse 40--"Jesus said, 'Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.'"   His sermon then talked about the difference between being hospitable and being welcoming.  See, being hospitable is (for me, at least) generally easy.  To make sure that your guest has whatever he or she needs.  You pass them on to the next person or place.  You move on to the next person.  To be welcoming though, you generally have to give something of yourself.  It's like how we often ask others how they are when we don't really intend to stop and listen to the answer.  It's the hospitable thing to ask.  It's the welcoming thing to actually listen to the answer and respond accordingly.

So this week, while serving in the Guest Hospitality role, I'm going to try awfully hard to be more than hospitable to our guests at DAR.  I'm going to try to listen to the whisper that reminds me to be welcoming, too.