Yesterday (Wednesday) morning I went into my local Waffle House (WH) and sat at the low bar. I had been out of town Friday through Monday so it was the first time I had been there since last Thursday. I was talking to the waitresses and cooks catching up on life when an elderly lady walked in. Her and her husband are regulars at the WH. This was the first time I had seen her walk in by herself. The waitress whispered to me as she walked in that her husband had passed away on Sunday and they had his funeral Tuesday. My heart sank into sadness and I said, ‘Oh No!” I got up from the low bar as she was coming in and walked up to her. She gave me a warm smile and said, “Hello”. I told her I was so sorry to her about her loss and hugged her. As we hugged another waitress came around the bar and hugged her as well and the three of us with tears in are our eyes shared a long hug of love as the waitress and I spoke words of love over the lady. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and said I had to come in this morning and see my family. And I have to try to move on into this new season of my life. We hugged, I kissed ger cheek, and she went and sat down at a booth, for the first time without her husband.
They were a wonderful, sweet, elderly couple who were so in love with each other. Her husband had Parkinson disease and it sadly slowly deteriorated him. He would sit at the booth and his leg would shake all the time. They used to laugh with me as my shakes all the time when I sit down. They always had a smile on their face and I was blessed to share life with them and pray with them. They were members of our WH congregation, they were family.
As I sat at the low bar and drank my coffee and talked with the staff and those patrons around me, I watched the booth the lady was sitting at. Throughout my time there someone would continuously sit in the booth in the bench across from her. A waitress would sit across from her and they would hold hands across the table and share. After five minutes of so, the waitress got up and walked around and hugged her. When the waitress got up, a regular patron walked over and took the seat across from her and this process repeated. Before I left, I took my turn in the seat across from her and held her hands across the table. In our conversation I told her I loved her, loved her husband, and if there is anything she needs help with to please give me a call. After we finished talking, I prayed over her, then walked around and hugged her again, kissed her forehead, and left for my day.
As I reflect on the morning, I loved the fact that the morning after she buried her husband, she wanted to come to the WH. It was her family, it was her “small group”, it was her church. And that morning even though her heart was broken with the loss of her life-long soul mate, it was a place where her heart received love, support, compassion and healing.
As a simple church planter, I have always said that if you start by trying to plant a church, you may end up with some form of community, However, if you start by forming and entering into a community, a church will always come out of it. The mornings this couple spent at the WH, they were with out labeling it, attending their small group, band group, or accountability group. It did not have those labels, it did not meet at a church or because of a sign up sheet passed around at a church, it did not look like what you would picture a small group would look like, but it felt like one more than ever. And it was real, and it was beautiful. And I am blessed to be a part of it. And it continues every morning I walk in the door and hear “Welcome to Waffle House” and sit down and love and receive love from those I sit down and share life with. Again, it is what legacy churches are trying to recreate, it is organic, it is beautiful
My family, I pray you will find your WH, your place where you can enter into the life and simply love your neighbors as yourself. As in doing so you will receive amazing love in return, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
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