I’ve heard the word “Friendsgiving” more this year than I have every other year combined. I don’t know if it’s because I’m in a new place or if it’s become a bigger thing in recent years.
I absolutely love the idea.
When you get down to it, what’s more wholesome than a group of friends coming together to be thankful together for all that they have been blessed with?
Tonight I experienced another Friendsgiving in which I would say the best word to describe the night would be joyful. There was so much laughter and there was a sense that you had that every person in the room was having a good time. You didn’t need to ask them, you could just tell.
As I left, I was given two full plates of Thanksgiving foods. I couldn’t help but think as I left of all the homeless people I walk by every day on my way to work that don’t even have the food I just ate let alone the joy and peace that came from the fellowship.
What if we started a new tradition called “Roadsgiving”? Where you go out to the streets and invite a homeless person to your house for a meal with friends and/or family. To invite them in on the fun. There would be no obligation to keep the friendship going, though that would be great, but just that one act of hospitality would show the cities we live in that we care about them.
Some wouldn’t come. Some would still complain. Some might be too high on drugs to understand what you’re telling them. But all you have to do is ask.
What if next Thanksgiving the streets of downtown Austin were close to empty around Thanksgiving because most of the homeless were in the houses of those who walk by them every day? What kind of an impact would this have in our country and communities?