Much of what we read about Jesus’ ministry involves meals shared together.
Sharing a potluck meal with strangers or entertaining at home is like placing a sacrifice of something of one’s self on an altar…. the shared table spread before us. We offer something of ourselves, something special, a favorite dish, something quick and without personal effort or attachment, or something that means comfort and hospitality…… What will we bring? How will it be received? We place it before the body present and we trust all go away filled and satisfied.
“…..the ways we pull back from what is different and huddle up into our familiar corners, the silence between us is deafening, as if each of us is holding our breath wondering if we are welcome and who will go first. Loneliness surges in the wake of shouting without listening, and narratives run wild in the gaps of what we think we know.
But what might it look like if we come to the communal table willing to sample from each other’s stories? What if we suspended our beliefs and ideas just long enough to oset our curiosity free? What if we took a step closer, offered a piece of who we are, and invited others to do the same?”
Sarah Westfall, “The Things We Do Not Say”….. the impact of a shared meal
As necessary as nutrition is, Jesus said the better part is choosing fellowship with Him:
During this season of Lent I am attempting to return to a focus I had before Thanksgiving and Christmas took me off the path.
As God would have it, I had signed up to attend a Seedbed NewRoom Leaders Gathering at Ridgecrest Conference Center in Asheville, NC the last week of February. I signed up more out of curiosity than anything else…it is an inaugural event, held at a facility I was curious about, and they added a training track for leaders in an area that appealed to me. So I registered.
The site, facility, and program have more than fulfilled my expectation and I discovered that God had His own reason for bringing me here.
After signing in to the guest desk and conference desk, I set out to find my room, more or less getting familiar with the campus since I had 2 hours before the conference kickoff.
I walked over toward the closest lodging buildings pulling my luggage behind me, and as I turned the corner and looked up the hill before me I saw a scene that was not just familiar, but shockingly familiar. I was looking up a hill that was a scene from a dream I’d had months ago, before I even registered for this event. The view before me was the final view I had seen in my dream… the hill, the buildings…. it was the place where my dream had played out. It rattled me a bit. I stood there a minute thinking, “What kind of deja’vu or Twilight Zone is this?”. I walked around the lodging building immediately before me and to my right. It was the southwestern-most housing that looked somewhat like a campground dorm-type building on the campus. Its entrance and porch faced away from me, out toward the wooded setting and was where my dream appeared to have taken place, but it was not my assigned housing. I checked the campus map and found my room at the opposite northwestern-most location on the second floor of a much newer and more hotel-like three story building called “Mountain Laurel Lodge West.” In my room I did a quick file search on my phone and found the dream posted in a private file in my WordPress blog…,,,
“Private: Dream Insights
7/20/23- I had a very vivid and strange dream early this morning around 2:30. When I awakened from it I thought about the details for a minute and knew I’d remember them, so I returned to sleep.
The Dream
I was in bed like I was in an inn or cabin-type guest house.. There seemed to be other cabins not too far away, and kind of all on a hillside. A child was with me, maybe between 10-14 years old…. a daughter? a granddaughter? (or perhaps my own adolescent self?) I was aware of being my current self and wondering who was trying to get in our room at this late night hour, as I had been awakened by someone clearly trying to get in at the door. I moved toward the door and as I did a man pushed his way in. He was no taller than me and slight and wiry. He was wearing an old white tee shirt and brown long pants. I think he was barefooted. His face was coarse and angular, deeply lined, tanned, and leathery but clean shaven. His mouth was a snarling frown and his eyes were deep set and dark. His ears seemed oversized for his head. Dark greasy-shiny short curls of hair stuck to his forehead and around his ears and neck. He had a pair of rusty scissors with a blue handle in his right hand and one of the blades was broken. He was grabbing at my arms with his left hand and I was trying to move out the door dragging him with me as he held onto my arm to get him away from the child who was hiding in the bed and didn’t move. The scuffle was brief as I mentally figured my odds of keeping away from the scissors’ point. It didn’t last long as I twisted and pulled until he and I were near the porch edge that dropped off about 6-8 feet. As we got near the edge I twisted around back toward the room door, kicked a leg out from under him and shoved him off the edge of the porch into what seemed like a mucky bog of mud. For a second it looked like quicksand swallowing him as he sank into it until he was almost covered then he began struggling to get to his feet. I ran back toward the door to secure the lock, grab the child and my phone and get locked into the bathroom. I was aware of my pistol being with me and I grabbed the bag I keep it in as we rushed toward the bathroom. I shouted for her to dial 911 as I got the loaded gun out and got in a position in front of her and braced to shoot him if he broke through the bathroom door. That’s when I woke up. I never saw the child’s face or heard her speak.
I remembered the dream again about midday today as I drove to Birmingham, AL for a doctor appointment. When I got to the office I wrote it down. After I wrote it down, it occurred to me that this represented a demonic attack and I think our newest 24-year-old student at Titus 2 ministry was very much like the child. She is very petite and childlike in her behavior. In the dream the child was quiet and hidden until I grabbed her, headed to the bathroom and told her to call 911. In the dream I couldn’t imagine why the man was after me, but I wanted to direct his attention away from her. I think now he was trying to get me out of the way to get to her but it was not as easy as he expected and he was poorly equipped to tangle with me!”
I had not thought about that dream since I logged it in the dream file that day until I looked up that hill and realized it had been the last frame of that dream . When I got to the first session of the conference I told a friend that the conference was starting out in fine fashion, as I believed there would be a lot to learn about spiritual battle here. The next 48 hours did not disappoint.