Travis Reill on "Making Room" by Christine D. Pohl

In “Finding Our Way Again,” McLaren reintroduces us to our spiritual heritage, including rediscovering many of our spiritual practices and traditions. He shows us how these practices are so vital for our spiritual life and necessary for things such as the “three fold way.” However, maybe of up most importance, these spiritual practices McLaren talks about are essential for the people of this world. We are charged to leave our western mindset, stop compartmentalizing our faith, and find it as a way of life, like so many Eastern spiritual practices have done. That is when people will be attracted to this Jesus we talk so much about.

“Making Room” was the perfect book to follow. I was incredibly challenged by “Finding Our Way Again,” mostly to find the spiritual discipline to spend time in God’s story, prayer and conversation, fasting, etc. Yes, these are all very important things and hopefully if I am finding myself doing all of them then the love of Christ will be flowing out of me. Yet, they are some what self focused, mostly working on my relationship with Christ. “Making Room” challenged me to rediscover another ancient spiritual practice, one of hospitality. Hospitality is outward focused, something that I do, an action. And the extension of this hospitality directly affects this crazy thing called “other people,” challenging me in a more concrete and sobering way. Actual faces come to mind—men, women, children, and families—how many have I simply walked by?

Yet Pohl doesn’t just leave hospitality as an “action,” something we go and “do” as if it were separate from our daily walk with Christ. On the contrary, Pohl describes this hospitality as a reflection of the Christian life, going as far to say that if you are a follower of the Way, your life will be one of hospitality. This isn’t something that you went and did once when you were in high school on that “inner-city mission” trip, hospitality is a reflection of your God life. It isn’t something that some are called to, but I’m called to something else so I have a way out. No, hospitality is reflection of the God life, and, thus, hospitality is a reflection of God. Pohl isn’t just the one who is saying this, she is simply paraphrasing, as well as directly using the teachings of Christ. Her text is heavily intertwined with scripture, “God-breathed” and challenging. After reading “Making Room” and reflecting once again on Christ teachings of hospitality, I have come to one conclusion: I need to see hospitality as a reflection of my God-life because I am nervous to face the reality of my life if I don’t.