Love Stinks!

By John Meinen

We all know (and some via painful experience) that "guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days." We're human – read: selfish, spoiled, and rotten. To put it bluntly, we stink! Peter, fisherman by trade and famous disciple who denied Jesus three times, would most certainly agree. You see, Peter was no stranger to the brokenness of the human condition, nor was he a stranger to the God-awful stench of rotting fish. Maybe that's why in his first letter to His elect, Peter writes, "Love each other deeply…[and] offer hospitality to one another without grumbling" (1 Peter 8-9).

I love the juxtaposition of these two verses – to love each other deeply and to be hospitable without grumbling. In a way, to love is to be hospitable, and to be hospitable is to love. Either way you look at it, love and hospitality are hard work, hence Peter's shushing.

In light of this truth, what my host family has done for me this year is nothing short of amazing. I was a stranger; they opened their home (and hearts) to me. I was hungry; they let me raid their fridge. I was tired; they gave me a bed to sleep in (rent free). Growing up, I longed for a younger brother; now, I've "adopted" two. My room is messy, I squeeze the toothpaste from the middle, and occasionally I leave the dishes in the sink – and trust me folks, we're way beyond day three! And though I can only imagine how hard it must be at times, the Taylors love me despite my figurative – shoot, maybe even my literal – smell. God knows I love them too.

The funny thing is this: Jesus commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Sometimes that's a whole lot easier than loving those under the same roof. Yet day in and day out, the Taylor family loves deeply. And in doing so, my host family is imparting me with one of the greatest – if not the greatest – lessons to be learned as a TFC Fellow: how to love. And there's nothing fishy about that!