The sin of longing to be inaccessible (aka the ‘Get off my lawn mentality’).

A wooden boardwalk trail winds through a sunlit forest, autumn leaves scattered across the planks.

Have you ever wished you could build a perimeter around your house and make it difficult for people to be able to walk up to your front door and start knocking? I have, just now, about 10 minutes ago and many times prior to that. It sounds kind of funny, but it’s also kind of not. I’m not talking about boundaries and personal space and all that. Obviously, those things are good and important and not necessarily sinful. But if the overall position and proclivity of your heart is “get off my lawn” all the time, it could be a good indicator that something’s off. It’s common to get people-ed out from time to time, but having a bent towards it is something to pray about.

We have neighbor kids that come knocking on our door (quite frequently) to see if our kids would like to play. Usually it’s right after we get home from work/school, and I tend to be a little crispy by that time of the day after being drained from work. I don’t know if you’ve experienced this, but most kids aren’t very good at closing doors, which doesn’t bode well in Florida heat and humidity. Let’s just say I start to get a little irritable and anxious when kids come over and start going in and out of the house. It stretches me a bit and I have to be 100% intentional to be hospitable in those moments. It would be great to be hospitable in those moments with little to know action of the will. One mark of a true Christian is seeking to show hospitality (Rom. 12:13). So I think even if you’re not feeling it, you can seek to show hospitality, and so that’s simply all I try to do with the hope that Jesus would heal and carry my heart along in that so that it’s genuine overflow accompanied with gladness.

I think as Christians, it’s right to keep ourselves open, (dare I say) even at great cost. And I mean to actually gladly and willingly keep ourselves open. Not joylessly like, “well, I guess I’m supposed to open up my home and life to people because that’s what a good Christian does.” Here’s to more joy in being spent for people!