Gracious Hospitality
Savvy Saturdays - 8/8/20
Hello friends,
Greetings from Austin!
In my last update, I shared that I was moving out of my old apartment, and I was having a lot of sad boy hours afterward.😢
What I didn’t share was that I wouldn’t be able to move into my new apartment until mid-August, giving me a sparse two weeks with no place to stay.😳
I would’ve joined my roomie in an Airbnb, but I wanted to see if there were other options. I will admit, it was a pretty nice place for the price, and the boys seemed to be having lots of fun when I visited them. (shown below)
Fortunately, a couple of friends were willing to let me stay at their house for the duration, so I’ve been very grateful for them to host me at their place!
Not only has it been great being able to have quality time staying with people in the same life stage as me (#workingadultlife), but it’s been a good reminder of what excellent hospitality looks like.
With COVID happening, and as someone who cares a lot about health, safety, and taking responsibility for reducing spread, it has been easy to isolate from others, raise up walls, and limit interaction.😷
Especially after a moment in June with my previous roommates when we thought one of us was exposed to COVID, that experience burned into my mind the weight of irresponsible actions.😔
But staying at the Comrades (that’s what my friends call themselves), has refueled my desire to be a good host, and shown me what a blessing great hospitality can be.
They’ve welcomed me, shared food a.k.a. cheesy ramen (it was actually pretty good), and even though I was a temporary housemate, they made me feel like I was a Comrade amongst them. (not the communist one though 👀)
It makes me reflect upon Acts 20:35, and how “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
As someone on the receiving end of great hospitality, it has challenged me to see what I can give and how I can better host others in this quarantine period.
I’m still learning what my boundaries are (as I’m conscious of the people I’m with/potentially with).
And I’m still learning to relinquish fears of certain risks, since great hospitality is a proactive action.
But I hope that one day, I too may be able to give joyously and freely to others as the Comrades have given to me.😄 *cheers
Thanks for checking in on this update!
I’ve kept it shorter than usual, wanting to keep concise with my words (and also I got to the main insight for the update pretty quickly 😅).
Here are several photos from the past week, involving food, biking, and the Austin area.
(Cooked a whole Golden Pompano with tomatoes - one of the housemates couldn’t believe I ate the whole fish🐟)
(Biking with newlyweds from Lifelong Commitment post)
(A hidden gem in Austin’s neighborhoods)
(Candid sunset next to Sunshine Community Garden)
(A wholesome comic to end | source)
Anyways, thanks once again for checking in! Keep it savvy and I’ll see y’all in the next update 😊
Weekly Collections
Faith
Before you make one peep of an effort to solve your own problem or hire a human agency, pray.
“So, in conclusion, let me sum up those three things:
When circumstances conspire to put you under pressure so that you feel that something’s got to be done — something’s got to be done for safety or something’s got to be done for service — wait for the Lord; that is, pray. Before you do anything else, seek the Lord, seek his counsel. What would he have you do, if anything?
If the Lord says, “Sit down and put your feet up,” if the Lord says, “Don’t go to church tonight to be at the council meeting; stay home and pray; I will work better than your arguments,” stay home.
And if the Lord says, “Go and argue with all your might,” don’t become self-reliant, but go.
And let me stress in regard to that second point that I don’t mean laziness or the shirking of duty. I mean the very frustrating experience that sometimes, when you’re most prepared, when you think the most relies on you, and your zeal is fire, the Lord may say to you, “You just stay home tonight and watch me work.” And you’re a little frustrated because you had it all planned, but he wants to work for you so that he gets the glory and not us.
So, whether we lie still and sit, or whether we work, let us have this in common: that we wait for the Lord, that we have a spirit of expectancy that no matter how paltry our labors are, the final issue is in the hands of the Lord. And he loves to work for those who wait for him.”
—How Do I Wait for God? | Ask Pastor John
Entrepreneurship
Productivity
"I don’t recall where I read this, but someone recommended that if you need a tool:
buy the cheapest one you can find.
If it’s inadequate, or breaks, or you use it a lot,
then buy the best one you can afford.
If you follow this strategy, you’ll sometimes waste a little money by buying a cheap tool before buying a good one.
But you won’t waste money buying expensive tools that you rarely use. And you won’t waste money by buying a sequence of incrementally better tools until you finally buy a good one."
—The worst tool for the job | John D. Cook
Weekly Reflections
Mental Model
We act and make decisions based on the conclusions we make. But we tend to jump to these conclusions and skip important parts of the reasoning process.
Ladder of inference, developed by a former Harvard professor Chris Argyris, is a tool that helps you fill the gaps in your thinking and make decisions based on reality. It's also helpful to challenge the thinking of others and reach better conclusions together.
There are 7 steps on the ladder that represent our mental processes. Here's what it looks like from the bottom up:
Available data - This is the reality we are able to observe.
Selected data - We select what we pay attention to based on our prior experiences/existing beliefs.
Interpretations - We paraphrase what we see or hear to make sense of it.
Assumptions - Based on our interpretation, we make our own personal assumptions.
Conclusions - We draw conclusions from our assumptions.
Beliefs - Our beliefs are then developed from the conclusions we make.
Actions - Finally, we take actions that are rooted in what we believe to be true.
—(untools: Tools for better thinking)
How to apply the mental model:
First, identify on which step of the ladder you currently are. Are you about to take action and you're not sure if it's the right one? Or perhaps you're aware of some of the assumptions you're making?
Then work your way down before building your reasoning up again. To work your way down the ladder, use the guiding questions up above for each step.
As you answer these, you may find that your reasoning changes along the way and that's good. When you reach the bottom of the ladder, work your way back up again, this time more consciously and deliberately.
Verse of the Week
“Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”
—1 Peter 2:2–3
Challenging Quote
"The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself."
—Mark Twain
If you guys have found the newsletter to be helpful, I would love to hear from you on what’s been good, any suggestions for improvement, and anything else you’d like to see!
Please don’t be shy to let me know and thanks in advance!