BOOK REVIEW: Strangers at My Door

"I was a stranger, and you invited Me into your home." Matthew 25:35, NLT

Have you ever wondered what it would like if you truly welcomed into your home anyone who happened to knock? That's exactly what Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove did, and Strangers at My Door is the book that tells about his experiences in doing so.

Organized thematically rather than chronologically, Wilson-Hartgrove takes us through what it looks like to "Open the Door," "Lean(ing) In," and experience "Gifts From Beyond." We are reminded that when we look into the face of those who have been cast out by society, we have to confront our own part in that as members of society. Are we willing to truly look into the eyes of those who are homeless...truly get involved and be Jesus' hands and feet? Or do we simply walk up the steps to our homes and close the doors behind us?

I appreciate Wilson-Hartgrove's honesty. He reminds us that the knock at the door is "always an interruption," and that he doesn't always answer it when he should. He quotes Dostoevsky: "Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams." Yet he has opened his door hundreds of times over the years and has been Jesus to those who needed to eat, or drink, or be given clothing, or receive friendship.

The knock at the door also brings us into a shared experience of hurt with hurting people. He says, "Prayer isn't the power to stand down the waves of suffering that crash over all of us. Prayer is holding the hands of those who will stay with you, being present. It's learning to trust that a way will open." As the leader of an intercessory prayer team, sometimes I want to pray a solution into someone's life when really, I'm supposed to sit beside them and pray with them, waiting together for the answer.

However, in two other roles of my life I have to push back a bit against Wilson-Hartgrove's book. First, as a wife and mom I find myself wanting to know more about his wife and children's experiences as he has run Rutba House over the years. As the protector of my children, I do have reservations about the wisdom of taking in men right from prison into the home where my kids sleep. I would like to know if there were ever adverse events that arose through the years of this ministry.

Second, as someone who worked for years with the homeless in my big city, I am perhaps a bit calloused to the approach that those without homes simply need unconditional love to set them back on their feet. I know that sometimes the homeless really need to show an investment in rehabilitation to make it valuable to them. While I don't think Wilson-Hartgrove is naive--I do hear wisdom in his words--I would have liked to hear more about ways he holds his houseguests to a certain degree of accountability; where are the checks and balances?

Overall, I enjoyed this book. It challenges me to remember those who are hurting and hungry when I walk along the street or around my neighborhood. It challenges me to remember that Jesus wants us to remember to care for strangers, because sometimes they are angels. And it challenges me to remember that whenever we do these things to the least of these, we do them to Jesus.

I received this book for free for review purposes from Waterbrook Multnomah books. This is the author's website, and if you are interested in reading the first chapter of the book, go here.