The past 8 months have been filled with some crazy adventures. I have spent a weekend hiking through the Himalayan mountains with my friends, I’ve rode in a speedboat to an island off the coast of Thailand at midnight, I’ve watched the sunrise over a Buddhist temple with thousands of people, and I’ve gone on an African safari in the middle of Rwanda. There have been ministry days filled with teaching English to kids and co-workers, washing babies in the slums of Nepal, witnessing the Lord physically heal people, and other days filled with painting walls.
In the middle of all of the crazy and mundane days we have spent on the World Race, there is one constant that hasn’t changed no matter which continent or country we have traveled to: life around the table.
The beginning and ending of each day remains the same wherever we go. Every morning our team starts the day around the table—groggy eyes, open Bibles, and cups full of hot coffee. And no matter what the day brings, we end around the table—home-cooked dinners, card games, the occasional (and sometimes daily) tears, full hearts, uncontrollable laughter, and Truth prevailing in each conversation.
The table is a sacred place. It’s where we come daily to break bread and invest in each other’s lives. It’s where we come when we’re running on empty and when we’re filled to the brim. It’s where we gather to be fully seen, fully known, and fully loved. It’s a space where the phones are set down, the eyes are gazing up, and where we’re fully present with one another.
Life around the table has changed something in my heart this year. It’s made me realize the importance of slowing down and fully engaging with those around me. Whether we’re having deep talks about life & love or whether we’re laughing our heads off trying to sing a Riff-Off (thanks, Pitch Perfect)…the table is the common place where we always gather together.
I imagine that in heaven we are all going to be gathered around a never-ending table together. I imagine the table in a long corridor that seems to go on forever and ever. And God will be there. And Jesus. And the the Holy Spirit. And Abraham. And Moses. And Ruth. And Peter. And Paul. And my loved ones. And people that I met for a moment all around the world. And we will gather and have dinner together and talk about all of the amazing things that God allowed us to experience in our time on earth.
And just like my times around the table on the Race—we will all be fully present, fully seen, and fully known. There will be no more tears at the table in heaven. Only hearts full of joy and thankfulness as we reflect on all that God had done in our lives.
What I’m learning as I sit at our kitchen table and write this blog, is that I don’t have to wait until heaven to continue to gather around the table with one another. I can choose to pull up a chair to the table and to bring all of myself—every beautiful, imperfect part of me to the table every single day. As I return home in a few months I am going to choose to come to the table with saints and sinners and realize that we are all imperfect and in need of a Savior.
The table is the place where the laughter is inevitable, the tears are welcomed, and the hearts are fully known.
And this is the life I have come to love: a life with my friends and loved ones, new and old…a life around the table.
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“We don’t come to the table to fight or to defend. We don’t come to prove or to conquer, to draw lines in the sand or to stir up trouble. We come to the table because our hunger brings us there. We come with a need, with fragility, with an admission of our humanity. The table is the great equalizer, the level playing field many of us have been looking everywhere for. The table is the place where the doing stops, the trying stops, the masks are removed, and we allow ourselves to be nourished, like children. We allow someone else to meet our need. In a world that prides people on not having needs, on going longer and faster, on going without, on powering through, the table is a place of safety and rest and humanity, where we are allowed to be as fragile as we feel.” -Shauna Niequist, Bread & Wine
