In 2020, we didn’t travel much. After months mostly at home, one day I looked in the mirror and asked myself, “Why am I shaving every day?” That’s when I decided to grow my pandemic beard.
A few months later, I had dinner with friends. One of them wore a beard. He brought me a gift. It was a bottle of beard oil. I had never heard of that. Having a beard was new to me. Then he began to explain the culture I had just joined: beard festivals, beard groups, even beard etiquette. My understanding of beards and the people who wore them grew that night.
When we’re new at something, we often need guidance. Mentors and guides help us navigate unfamiliar territory. Faith is no different.
In Luke 14, Jesus tells the parable of the great dinner. A rich man planned a feast and sent invitations to his peers. For various, almost trivial reasons, they declined. In that culture, refusing an invitation like this was a serious insult. Angered, the man instructed his servants to invite others. People who normally wouldn’t be invited: the outcasts, the poor, the socially overlooked.
It’s easy to imagine that these new invitees didn’t know how to respond. What was expected of them? How could they offer anything in return? Yet they accepted. One subtle detail of the story stands out to me. When the man first becomes angry, he tells his servant to go find new guests. The servant responds, “Sir, what you ordered has been done.” 
He had already begun the work of reaching out and, perhaps, showing the new guests how to navigate this unfamiliar dinner. He offered direction to them and would lure more, helping those who were new to understand how to participate.
Just like a pandemic beard taught me about a whole new culture, our churches should be places filled with people who help one another flourish when we step into something new, especially something new like faith.
Stay blessed...john | 
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