Do you remember the family table of your growing up years? If your memories are pleasant, you might realize that that table was about much more than a table.

Author Shauna Niequist says this about that:

Many of the most sacred moments of my life have taken place around the table. Young or old, male or female, married or single, I think the table matters for all of us. And I think the table matters whether we’re talking about a formal dining room set with matching china or a beat-up coffee table in a first apartment. What matters isn’t the food or the table or the settings. What matters is that we create spaces to see and hear one another…

Which can be easier said than done, since many of us suffer from “performance anxiety” when it comes to inviting people into our homes. Maybe you feel your home isn’t big enough, clean enough, nice enough. Maybe you hyperventilate at the thought of cooking for others, because you’re afraid they won’t like what you fix, that you’ll mess it up somehow, that there won’t be enough.

But if what really matters is that you create a space to see and hear someone who needs to be seen and heard, then that space doesn’t need to include dusted furniture or even one ounce of cooking prowess. Just attention. And a little sustenance for the body and the soul.

This episode can help you change the question in your head from “What will we eat?” to “How does my friend need to be fed?”

And you might just change a life in the process…

Notes:

Niequist, Shauna. “Come to the Table.” Storyline Blog, April 10, 2013.

Niequist, Shauna. Bread and Wine. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan