Tag Archives: christmas

Sharing Meals with Friends

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Meals are one of the simplest ways to make space for connection.  Something happens around a table that rarely happens in hallways, lobbies, or text threads.  And it’s all taking place while we get to eat food!  

Eating food is great.  Eating food with others is even better!  There’s something disarming about sharing a meal with someone.  Food is an immediate conversation starter.  What do you like?  Where do you go?  What are you getting?  

We live fast paced, isolated lives.  Sharing a meal with someone is a small way to bring heaven on earth!  It is a time to slow down, open up, and allow others into the interior of our lives.  

Scripture doesn’t treat meals as background noise. God consistently uses tables to gather, teach, and reveal Himself.  In the book of Exodus, we see the importance of a meal marking out the rescue Israel experienced from enslavement in Egypt.  It is a meal that is still celebrated till this day by the Jewish community, and it all revolves around food. 

In the life of Jesus, we see multiple examples of Jesus sitting down to share a meal with others.  It could have been at the wedding, in a home, or with the disciples, but it was a consistent pattern in the life of Jesus to share meals with others. 

In addition, throughout the New Testament we see God’s Word calling followers of Jesus to practice hospitality with one another.  It is enjoying the relationships in our lives and being open to new relationships.  

Sharing a meal makes it easy to transition into questions and conversations about what’s going on in other areas of life.  Can you imagine sitting across from someone and asking them about their day without food?  It would feel like an interview!  But add some chips and salsa and now everything changes.  It’s the magic of food!  

Sometimes we can get uncomfortable about inviting people into our home because we feel like our home isn’t big enough, nice enough, or let’s be honest, clean enough!  But you don’t need to be married with two kids and a 2,000 SQFT house to share a meal with someone.  This is something anyone can do!

An easy place to start sharing a meal with someone is our family.  It could be our parents, our children, or distant family members.  It might be a little more challenging if our children are younger, but really, it’s just a matter of training our children to engage in conversation.  When our children were younger we wouldn’t ask, “How was your day?”  We would ask, “What was the funniest thing that happened today?”  Sometimes, when we dropped them off at school we would even say, “Be on the lookout for the funniest thing today!”

As our children got older we would ask more complicated questions like, “Did you meet anyone new today?”  What was the hardest part of your day?  Where did you see God’s grace at work in your life today?  What are you thankful for today?

When we are connecting with friends from work or church it is great to ask questions like, “Where did you grow up?”  Do you have any siblings?  Do you get to see your family often?  What brought you to this city?  

I call them “Go 2 Questions.”  I wish I was the person that was great at being present in every situation and could ask questions off the top of my head, but I need a road-map.  I try to come up with 4-5 questions around every meal to help guide the conversation.  I might not get through all the questions.  I am hoping for questions to branch out as we get started, but it helps to calm my nerves to have a conversation map to follow.  

When we are connecting with older adults in our family it is easy to drift toward questions like, “Are you okay?”  Do you need anything?  Those questions are important, but I find it enjoyable to talk about their areas of interest, what’s shaped them over the years, or stories of how they grew up.  The delight you see in their face when their eyes light up with an opportunity to talk about a heartfelt memory.  It’s a lot of fun! 

The best part of getting to know someone over a meal is that you get a 10,000-foot view of someone’s life.  It would be impossible for someone to share their whole story, but in those moments, you get to see how God’s hand is moving over the life of someone.  It’s pretty special!  

After sharing a meal with someone it is great to write down any key events or details that were shared so you can pray for those people.  It can be something simple like, “Job, doctor visit, personal goal, etc.”  It is a great way to start building deeper friendships with others.  

Try one intentional meal this week!  Take a moment and prayerfully consider friends and family in your life.  You can start with a family member, or you can grab lunch with a co-worker.  The key is to begin the spiritual discipline of building new relationships in your life for His glory! 

Why Do We Sing the Song “Joy to the World?”

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns, let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy

He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove, the glories of His righteousness, and wonders of His love, and wonders of His love, and wonders and wonders of His, His love


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“Joy to the World” was written by Isaac Watts who was born in 1674 in Southampton, England.  He wrote over 750 hymns including, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, This is the Day the Lord Has Made, and Sin Has a Thousand Treacherous Arts.”  

Watts was actually bleeding edge in his time.  As a teenager he would always complain about the music and the lack of participation from the people.  So, his father challenged him to do something. The following week he wrote, “Behold the Glories of the Lamb” and the people began to engage in the worship as he involved an emotional and theological influence in the worship.  Isn’t that fascinating?

Today, “Joy to the World” is the most published Christmas song to date, but until we see the theological truths layered in the song I think we are missing out.  Let’s look at Romans 8 to see where this song comes from.  

Romans 8:18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

In the context of the passage, verse tells us there is new life in Jesus, there is victory in Jesus, there is freedom from sin, life-changing transformation that is glorious, but in verse 18 it also says, “There is suffering.”

It means there are people all over the world who are enjoying friends and family, having fun, enjoying rest and seeing God do great things in their life, but there are also some people all over the world who are suffering.  

How can we sing a song called “Joy to the World” when we are surrounded by suffering?  Verse 18 speaks of “glory that is to be revealed.”

This is why the song says, “Joy to the world, let earth receive her king, let heaven and nature sing, let men their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy.”

This song isn’t just about fuzzy, warm moments around the holidays.  The song is about a baby that has come as king, lives a perfect life, takes all sin upon Himself, so that in Him, through faith, we are set free into the freedom of glory that will permeate every part of creation.  

But how does the hope of His glory lead to joy?  Imagine you are going to put two people in two rooms and give them identical tasks that are menial, boring, and difficult manual labor.  You tell them both, “You are going to work 40-hours a week, for 12-months, and no vacations.  It is going to be boring.  It is going to be tedious, and it is going to be really hard.  

To the first person you say, “At the end of the 12-months you will get an annual salary of $12,000.”  To the second person you say, “At the end of the 12-months you will get an annual salary of $12 Million.”

The first person is going to go at it for about 3-4 weeks and say, “I quit. This is too hard.  This is driving me crazy.”  But, the other person is going to say, “Done!  Not a problem, 12-months, are you kidding and whistling the whole day, every day, at work.”  Why?  The tedious trial is being overshadowed by the glory that is to be revealed.  

God’s Word teaches us, “We might get to live on this planet for 80+ years, and while we are here we will encounter suffering.  There are going to be hard days, but in verse 18 we see, “These hard days are nothing compared to the glory that is to be revealed.” 

Where is your joy?  Is it in romantic relationships that come and go?  Is your joy in the economy that is up and down?  Is your joy in how others perceive you?  What torture!

God’s Word invites us to put our joy in Jesus.  Jesus is the One who is full of power.  Jesus is the One who has come to call you His.  Jesus is the One who will return again to make all things new.  

This is why Isaac Watts writes down the words, “Joy to the World.”  It isn’t just what happens at the incarnation, it isn’t just the resurrection, it isn’t just the sanctification, but soon there is coming our glorification for the whole universe.