Monday, November 18, 2019

The Thanksgiving Table





The following is an email I sent to Coastline last week as an encouragement to seek the Lord as we approach Thanksgiving.

Hi Coastline,
As we approach Thanksgiving, I want to share with you a conversation that happened the other night at our dinner table. During our meal we began talking with our children about who we could invite over for Thanksgiving. We asked our kids to think of people in our church who might need a place to have a meal, eat some pie, and watch football with our family. One of our kids shared a person, my wife came up with an idea, and then I thought of another family. We asked our family to pray about who God might have us to reach out to. After prayer, we asked those we had thought of to join us for Thanksgiving. One of the couples said maybe, and we found out the other family had a place to go.

For many years our family has invited people to join us for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We’ve also been on the receiving end of that invitation and have been invited to people’s homes to spend the holidays with them. There are people in our church body, community, and city who will be spending Thanksgiving alone (let that set in). Some are connected to Coastline, some live near us, and others we’ve known for a long time. Each person has a different reason. Some can’t afford a plane ticket to visit to their family. Some don’t have a healthy relationship with their family. Others are new to town and looking for community.

This week will you begin praying for God to speak to you to see if He is asking you to reach out to someone? This is a personal act of seeking God. The church office will not be organizing Thanksgiving for people (before you think the tone here sounds harsh, keep reading). We want to see God’s people seek God’s voice in order to know God’s will. This might seem totally out of your comfort zone, and I understand that. But just maybe God will use your invitation to a person in your community group, some friends from your neighborhood, or a person you meet on Sunday at Coastline to do something God-sized in your life and in theirs.

Thanks for doing life together.

No comments: