How God Can Build a Table
A year ago, I wrote the first post on this site, welcoming all of you to a virtual table, a safe place to be seen and heard and known. You responded, and we grew. This week, as we celebrate a year of sharing stories, a year of encouragement and vulnerability and grace, with a series on the many ways the table plays a role in our relationships with Christ and our faith in him, I want to share with you how it all began, how God brought The Glorious Table into being as only he can do such things.
It was November 2014. I’d been blogging off and on for a decade, albeit sporadically, and I was looking around online for some other places to submit my writing. I found there weren’t many. Some took submissions biannually or quarterly; some had a set roster of contributors and weren’t looking for more; some were too niche-y. It was discouraging; there were less than a handful of places where the content felt right and the door was open to potential new contributors.
So I complained. (I called it praying, but let’s be honest–it was complaining.) And in my experience, God seems to enjoy doing something specific with complainers–he likes to employ them. The conversation went something like this:
I don’t get it. There’s just no place for an aspiring female writer to submit anything. Forget me–what about other writers? Why are all these doors closed online? Why aren’t there more places for women who feel called to write in your name to submit their words?
Maybe you should do something about that.
Me? How?
I continued to pray, and God continued to nudge. Eventually, whenever I prayed, I began to see an image of a table in my mind–an unrealistically long table. It was so long, in fact, that it faded into the distance the way a straight road fades into a tiny point on the horizon.
I didn’t know what to do with that table, so I just kept praying. What is this table you’re showing me, Lord? I asked. What am I supposed to do with this?
Every time I asked him that, I’d see the face of my friend Sarah in my mind. Over and over and over.
Finally, I called her. I didn’t really know what to say, but Sarah is pretty tuned in to God, and I knew she would take my nutty-sounding mumbo jumbo in stride.
“Hey,” I said. “This is going to sound a little weird, but I’ve been praying about something, and I keep seeing your face. I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you exactly what it’s all about, but I think I’m supposed to ask you to pray about it. Will you?”
Sarah didn’t laugh (this is one of her best qualities–she is incredibly good at taking other people’s bizarre prayer requests and treating them with perfect seriousness). She simply expressed curiosity and agreed to pray.
A week or so later, she called me back.
“I don’t know what it means,” she said, “but when I pray, I keep seeing a table.”
Did you just get chills?
Yeah, me too. I get chills every time I retell this story.
Eleven months later, we were holding our breath as the first post at theglorioustable.com went live, watching and waiting to see what would unfold. We’d spent eleven months prayerfully waiting for God to send us a couple of other women to share the leadership load and another bunch of women with words to share in his name, then prayerfully building and setting this virtual table–this glorious table. We’ve been endlessly awed as hundreds of you have pulled up chairs. Our ongoing prayer is that we would humbly submit to the Lord’s plans for this place, so that you will continue to feel seen, heard, and known here.
We are excited, too, about the birth of The Glorious Table Community, a place where we can connect a little more deeply, a safe place where you have a chance to share your lives with each other, ask for prayer, and be held close. We believe God wants the conversation between his daughters to continue to grow there.
In her book The Lifegiving Home, Sally Clarkson writes,
“I am convinced that feasting can be a form of worship, an acknowledgment of God’s desire to create an abundant life to be enjoyed. The table can provide pleasure for all our senses, give comfort and rest amidst the weariness of daily life, and carve out a space where we cultivate community and draw closer to one another. When we choose to feast together–take the trouble to make each meal, however humble, an occasion for mindfulness and gratitude–we acknowledge God’s artistry and provision and draw closer to Him as well.”
We hope that The Glorious Table will continue to be a virtual feast of abundance that does all of these things.
Harmony Harkema has loved the written word for as long as she can remember. A former English teacher turned editor, she has spent the past seven years in the publishing industry. A novelist and blogger in the fringe hours of her working mom life, Harmony also has a heart for leading and coaching aspiring writers. Harmony lives in Memphis with her car-loving husband and two small daughters. She blogs at harmonyharkema.com.
In celebration of one year of The Glorious Table, every day this week we’re giving away something we love. Today’s giveaway is a copy of one of our favorite books this year, Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist. To enter the giveaway, sign up for our new monthly newsletter (in the sidebar on the righthand side of the site), and a special note from The Glorious Table staff delivered to your inbox with extra encouragement and ideas for making your life more glorious, plus a free monthly printable. The winner will be announced here tomorrow.
