Daylight shines brightly from the reflected February snow over the black dining table in my home, highlighting the fact that it hasn’t been dusted in a while; however, there is a valid reason the dust bunnies are flourishing on my table, since no one has pulled up a chair in at least a month. This underscores a Struggle With Singleness – it’s easier to eat at the breakfast bar or in my blue chair than it is to set a place at the table. Although my intentions to use that round dining table are honorable, after all, the wall above the window states, “The fondest memories are made when gathered around the table;” there seems to be a failure to follow through on this notion unless guests arrive to my home and share a meal.

This concept of offering a Welcome to the Table invitation has arisen in several places over the last few years, not surprisingly when discussing the importance of Hospitality and Being a Good Neighbor, but in other places as well. Sharing the significance of a table in reaching people for Christ, Kelly Reid communicated a memorable lesson with our Calgary GO Trip members, which I recorded to share (iPhone updates may have doomed that powerful message to the cloud). And the Christmas season provided lyrics that also resonate this message in Idina Menzel’s At This Table. Yet today, interestingly enough, the notion related to the importance of considering the setting for a meal emerged as I was reading about the importance of Keystone Habits.

In his book entitled The Common Rule, Justin Earley introduces the idea of creating daily habits, one of which is having one meal a day with others. Now, this was not an uncommon habit during my childhood, and I’m not sure that our family intentionally planned the day around this event; however, it was a part of our household rhythm, along with the reading of The Daily Bread. Earley shares, “In a culture of busyness, we seem to have made a strange flip. The solitary feeling of individual productivity and accomplishment is the necessity; time to stop to eat with others is a luxury. Of course we can’t live without eating, so we make a concession to stop and stuff something in our mouths, as if food is simply a fuel-which is to say that our bodies are simply machines…But we’re not machines, we’re human beings. A people who are made to eat. Regularly. And with others.”

Now, not only am I being spiritually challenged to consider the Habits of a Flourishing Life, but I’m compelled to challenge students in my nutrition classes to reframe their dining choices. Offering someone a Welcome to the Table invitation demonstrates our need for food and interaction with others around the table, which “says something profound about us. It says we need God, we need others, and we need the created world…Our hunger to feast on God’s creation is actually a good way that we were made…From planting to harvesting to preparing food, it’s impossible to survive without each other’s help.” So, by choosing to share at least one meal a day with others, Earley is recognizing how interdependent we are on God and others, and the central role that the dining table can play in today’s culture. He calls the table the center of gravity.

“Given that our communal life revolves around our need to eat, we may say that the table is the center of gravity for loving neighbor. The daily habit of eating at least one meal with others is important precisely because it asks us to rearrange our priorities around the communal table and to acknowledge that we are made for food and for each other.” Wow, what a challenge to love others with a simple Welcome to the Table!

Although, at the present time, I feel like I could share an entire book’s worth of content related to the dining table, I will stick to a few blog posts, so be on the lookout for more on this topic…The Flourishing Table…The Three Tables…and more. I close with a question that I really hope people will take the time to share of their experiences in the comments below-What precious memories do you have that occurred when gathered around the table?

References:

Earley, J.W. (2019). The common rule: Habits of purpose for an age of distraction. IVP Books.

Menzel, I. (2019, November 24). At This Table. . YouTube. https://youtu.be/acRAIkV7QDc