Discussion Questions:

What category of people are the most difficult for you to love? Are there any people in your life who have so deeply hurt or offended you that you struggle to love them?

Describe your relationship with hospitality. If Byron is correct and among the many possible expressions of hospitality, its most basic version involves “loving strangers” — what are some of the “most needy strangers” in your circle of influence?

Borrowing from Byron’s examples of “ways to love strangers” — how are you doing with:

•“Smiling” — is this natural or unnatural for you?

•“Courtesy” — is it easy for you to be “mannerly” toward others? Can you let others go before you?

•“Contributing” — are you generous toward the needs of others?

In Hebrews 13:3 we are encouraged to “lean in” to the needs and lives of strangers around us:

•Heb 13:3 — Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself.                Remember also those mistreated,               as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.

•Think bout the last time your were sympathetic toward the needs of others and could actually imagine yourself in their shoes.