EMILY RUTLEDGE, YOUTH MINISTER
You may have
seen information about this app floating around the internet the past few days.
Its call ‘Sit With Us’ and was created to be a connector for students who are
in need of people to eat lunch with and those who want to welcome people to
their lunch table. It’s simple, and
beautiful, and it was created by a current high school student who ate lunch
alone for her entire 7th grade year.
The students
who are inviting others to sit with them are called ‘ambassadors’. The definition of an ambassador is, “an accredited diplomat sent by a country
as its official representative to a foreign country”.
The foreign countries of our lives are vast and
expansive. We are alone as a
parent. We are alone as a caretaker. We are alone as a widow. We are alone as a transfer or an old-timer or
a leader. It is easy for us to access
the emotion of the student eating alone in the lunch room because we have each
been there and continue to be there in some aspect of our lives.
And, as Christians, even when our lives cause us to feel
alone, we are called to be the ambassador.
An ‘accredited diplomat’. Your
accreditation: you are God’s beloved child.
Your worth is beyond measure and your gifts uniquely given so that you
can officially represent our loving and accepting God. We are called to reach out and invite people
to the Table. We are to proclaim Christ’s
love through inclusion, invitation, and acceptance.
My heart breaks to think of that sweet girl eating lunch
alone for a year. It breaks my heart and
is happening every day. In our schools,
in our churches, in our workplaces, and even in our homes. We can be surrounded by people and be so
utterly and impossibly alone this world seems nothing but cold and cruel. We must be the light, the invitation, the warmth
that reminds others that we are in this together. That we are each worthy of a place at the
table.
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