On Thanksgiving evening a very dear friend of mine opened her restaurant for family and friends to come and enjoy a potluck together. It was a lovely evening, only made more beautiful through the reality that tragedy and hardship live just around the bend. You see, as the party goers were inside relishing and toasting life in the warm glow of good food, great company, and a general abundance of comforts, just outside the doors lay a now homeless woman who had just been beaten by her ex-fiancé. Many would have failed to even notice her. Since the beginning of modern culture these have been considered the untouchables, those shunned by life and society. But my friend saw her, sat with her, helped her into a friend’s car and made sure she went home with someone.
This love of others is the guiding principle behind the project I am embracing. I have come to the conclusion that the best way to love people is by feeding both their physical hunger and their souls. Let me explain. Food is considered by most a mere necessity for survival, giving terms like gourmand a bad name, one implying gluttony and excess. And so food and the dinner table have lost their social position only to be replaced by prefabricated meals that can be made in a hurry so people can move on to more important things. I will argue that if God had intended for food to simply meet a need we would still be eating manna and quail, possibly in pill or powder form now. Instead we have a loving God who not only rejoices in our survival but chooses and desires to lavish us with pleasures. Therefore, food tastes good, colors are beautiful, scents are enticing, enjoyments are bountiful, and life is inspiring.
You see, I believe that God in his infinite wisdom knew that we would always need to pause in the day and eat in order to survive. He also knew that we can not survive on food alone. Food only feed the needs of our bodies but good food, real food takes time and effort and much love. Real food is offered at a table called life where we are meant to sit and partake in the beauty of other people. We are meant to sit and live together. What better place to do that than a table laden with nourishment and affection?
We have lost something of such great value when we gave up the diner table for the hurried life we live: we lost the ability to show hospitality and truly see humanity, particularly to those who are poor and needy. In our hurry, we have created isolated bubbles for ourselves to live in. We miss the riches of living life with other people. People wonder why they feel lonely despite the fact they may live in one of the world’s largest cities surrounded by people many of which they call friend. I would venture to say it is because of the lost art of the dinner table. Where do you feel the least lonely? In a park filled with people? In a club surrounded by hundreds? In a line at the movie theater? Maybe in bed with yet another near stranger? I feel the most satisfied and content at the dinner table not because of the food but because when you truly welcome people into your home and space they feel it and so do you. As you work to fill their stomachs and their souls something miraculous happens: the isolation of this world falls away like scales, the cold mantle of loneliness is shed, and from the inside out a warm glow begins to spread. This is what love of people will do. It is truly amazing. When you show people hospitality and love they get truly filled. I choose to do more than to quiet the pangs of physical hunger that can only be satisfied by a filling spoonful. I hope to fill the hearts of those I feed with a little humanity. I look at those who come to share my table with the kind of love this world no longer chooses to offer, a simple love of people.
You see, Jesus wanted us to care for those who are poor and needy, he wanted us to help and feed them. A pearl of wisdom has escaped us. Though their bodies are hungry and it is good to feed those needs, many, many more are hungrier still because they feel a deep emptiness in their souls. Jesus never looked at those who were going through a difficult time and forgot that they were worthy of his time, effort and love. Sure you can feed a body by throwing a dollar cheeseburger at it but are really considering the human side of that individual, are you making a change, are you filling them up?
This is the reason I have decided to open the Heart and Soul Café. I will offer to feed any who enter the door great food and good company. I will provide computers and college ministry volunteers to help those who have never used a computer look for jobs. I will offer the food and company I would offer my family and friends with all the care and love I put into every tasty morsel of food and motherly wisdom. This will not be a shelter or a soup kitchen but rather a home away from home. I will serve great food to a varied crowd and offer any who enter a chance to partake in the art of the dinner table.
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