Chris Seay - A Place at the Table: A 40-Day Journey of Grace

Dare to Discover

I always thought issues like poverty and orphans were too big for me to get involved. Too far removed. Too expensive and complicated. Too daunting for my stage of life.

I was an overwhelmed white girl trying to navigate being a wife and mom to three little people. I was compassionate, but I was distracted. I reasoned there would be a time for me to think beyond my own mailbox eventually, but not now.

That is, until God brought Africa to my doorstep.

It was an ordinary day in my rush-and-hurry life. My girls were giddy with excitement over our scheduled outing with my middle daughters Brownie troop. In the midst of slapping sandwiches on the table and throwing hair bows on the ends of three little tangled ponytails, I grabbed a world map and quipped, Liberia. Thats where this choir that were going to hear today is from. Its a country in South America, kids. Lets find it.

We looked and looked. Then my oldest daughter, nine at the time, said, Um, Mom, Im pretty sure Liberia is this little country over hereon the west coast of Africa.

Absolutely. I just wanted to make sure you were paying attention.

Off we went on this ordinary day to an ordinary church in the middle of our ordinary town. We sat in an ordinary pew and felt nothing but ordinary.

Until. Until the extraordinary presence of God invaded that very ordinary place. God brought Africa, the orphans, the poverty, the reality, very close. Too close to ignore. Too close to deny. Too close to walk away. Too close to stay wrapped up in my ordinary life.

I couldnt do everything, but I could do something.

Our familys something wound up being a wonderfully crazy adventure of making a place at our table for two African choir boys who became our sons through adoption. And while adoption can be wonderful, its not the only way to make a place at the table. Its not the only way to let God interrupt the ruts of normal. The normal that keeps us distracted and blinded and without expectation of something more. But one thing is certain: the something more were made to experience with God can only be found outside the ruts.

So heres my challenge. Are you willing to stay out of the rut of normal for 40 days? Are you willing to mess with your normal patterns of eating in this 40-day adventure? Its biblical, but its hard. Its worth it, but it will surely bump into your happy in many ways.

I know this to be true on a personal level. You know that Scripture about not twisting your face and sulking because youre fasting? Yes, well, thats a hard one for me.

I recently did an extended fast from sugar and soda. At certain points of my journey, I wanted something sweet and something with fizz so badly I felt I should wear a T-shirt: Im fasting from sugar and soda. Talk to me at your own risk.

Lovely. That sort of defeats the whole spiritual growth part of fasting, right? But, lets be honest, leaving the rut of normal isnt easy.

The book youre holding, written by my friend Chris Seay, is a realistic, honest, and compassionate treasure. Anyone escaping the rut of normal through fasting will appreciate Chriss spiritual depth along with his transparency about being human.

We will come to our wits end during this fast. Some of us will blow it. But Chris reminds us this journey isnt about our power, strength of character, or self-control. It is a journey of surrender to God that will usher us from rut dwelling to transformed living.