Every year when I go for my physical, my doctor runs through a list of health questions. Most of them are simple yes-or-no answers, but there is always one question I never liked answering: “Do you walk or exercise at least 30 minutes a day?” For years my answer was regrettably the same: no.
Eventually, I got tired of giving that answer and decided something needed to change. I started getting up at 6:45 in the morning and walking for 30 minutes, three days a week. Nothing dramatic. No marathon training. No expensive equipment. I simply made a decision to get up, put on my shoes, and walk.
Then I kept doing it.
Before long, what began as discipline became a routine, and that routine became a habit. Now I even walk when we are on vacation because I don’t want to break the rhythm. But somewhere along the way, my morning walk became about much more than exercise.
Then the Interruption Came
God began interrupting my walk with people.
At the exact time of morning I chose to walk, neighbors are leaving for work, parents are walking their children to school, garage doors are opening, dogs are being walked, and people are beginning their day. I started waving, then talking, and then listening.
I learned that one neighbor is getting ready to retire. Another has the classic truck he drove in high school sitting in his garage. I began learning names, families, stories, and little pieces of life happening behind the doors I had walked past hundreds of times before.
When I walk alone, I often pray for the homes as I pass them. I now know many of the families by name or at least know something about what is happening in their lives. Somewhere along the way, my exercise routine became an opportunity for hospitality.
That’s when I realized something: hospitality can be habit forming.
Hospitality doesn’t always require a dinner table, a perfectly prepared meal, or an invitation into your home. Sometimes hospitality is simply deciding that wherever you go, people are going to matter to you. And you can practice that almost anywhere.
Try this the next time you go to a restaurant. When you walk through the door, see if you can beat the host or hostess to the greeting. Smile first. Say hello first. When your server comes to the table, ask their name and then use it during the meal. “Thank you, Sarah.” “Everything was great, Michael.” When you leave, thank them one more time by name.
Try it at the grocery store too. Look at the cashier’s name badge and greet them by name. Thank the bagger by name as well. It costs you nothing and takes only a few seconds, but in a world where people increasingly walk past one another, stare at their phones, avoid eye contact, and stay inside their own little worlds, something as simple as using another person’s name can communicate something powerful: I see you. You matter. You are more than the person doing something for me.
Do that once and it might feel unusual. Do it again and it gets easier. Keep doing it and hospitality begins to become a habit.
Here is the challenge: What if kindness no longer depended on your mood? What if encouragement didn’t depend on whether someone encouraged you first? What if you stopped waiting for friendly people to cross your path and decided that you would be the friendly person crossing theirs?
Imagine what could happen if every place you entered became just a little better because you were there. Your neighborhood, your workplace, your church, the restaurant, the grocery store, the coffee shop, or even the checkout line could become an opportunity to interrupt somebody’s day with kindness.
You don’t have to change the whole world today. Just interrupt the space you occupy. Notice someone, learn a name, start the conversation, offer the smile, give the encouragement, and say thank you. Then tomorrow, do it again.
We live in a culture that can be impatient, distracted, disconnected, and sometimes downright rude. Hospitality can interrupt that culture. Practice it long enough, and you may discover that being kind, noticing people, and making others feel valued becomes something you don’t even have to think about anymore.
It simply becomes part of who you are.
So consider yourself warned: hospitality is habit forming, and it just might be the habit our world needs most.
