Just a Coincidence?
For most of us, this was the first blessing we learned to say before a meal. For me, it was. Many Christians pause to “return thanks” before every meal. Diane and I always do. We say something more than the God is Great poem. But truthfully, to me it has been more of a ritual of just pausing to acknowledge that all the things we have, including our food, are gifts from God. And that’s not a bad thing.
On our recent trip to Ireland, we were enjoying a really good breakfast at the Galgorm Resort in Northern Ireland when I was struck by what I heard coming from the table behind me. Not loud, but not whispered either.
I had seen the gentleman come in after us and take that table a few minutes before he was joined by an obvious friend. I’m not sure when in his prayer I began to listen. But what I heard was not a ritual, not a thoughtless recitation, not a blurb to get on with eating. I listened to this guy:
⁃ Give thanks for the opportunity to be in that place.
⁃ Give thanks for the men that would be in their golf group.
⁃ Give thanks for the food.
⁃ Ask for an awareness of the hotel serving staff and guidance on how to best witness to them…and to the other golfers later in the day.
⁃ Ask that the conference they were attending would embolden them all to proclaim the gospel to the lost.
⁃ Ask that the Holy Spirit would make them more like Christ in the day ahead
⁃ Ask for continued protection for their families back home.
⁃ Ask that in their lives Christ would become more, and they would become less.
⁃ Pray for what was going on at home and throughout the world where more love and unity were needed.
Although the “blessing” itself was beautiful to me, I was immediately impacted by the openness, by the sincerity, by the intentionality of that prayer. The earlier recitation of my standard four phrases seemed pathetic in comparison.
I’ve been struck by the obligation and the opportunity to give full attention to every single time that I pause to speak to my Lord and to listen to Him speak to me. I won’t speak all my thoughts out loud each time I return thanks before a meal. But, my pause, my reflection, and my communication with Him will never be the same again in those moments.
As we were leaving the restaurant, we stopped to introduce ourselves to this minister from Minnesota, who formerly worked with FCA and knows a guy we know…the Nashville FCA guy, Steve Robinson, very well.
Thank you Lord for seating Dave Gibson at the table next to us in a far off rural corner of Ireland. And thank you Dave for being used by our Lord in His renewing of my mind.
