Do you feel lonely, disconnected, or like meaningful friendship has become harder to find?

We live in a world where we are constantly connected through our phones, yet many of us feel more alone than ever. In this episode of Faith Fueled Living, Kristin explores why God never intended us to carry life’s burdens by ourselves and why genuine community is essential to our emotional, spiritual, and physical well being.

Through biblical wisdom, personal reflection, and practical encouragement, you will discover how being fully present, sharing a meal, extending an invitation, and showing up for someone can create the connection we are all craving. Kristin also explores the powerful symbolism of gathering around the table and how simple acts of Christian hospitality can turn strangers into friends.

If you have been feeling isolated, longing for deeper friendships, or waiting for someone else to reach out first, this episode will encourage you to take one small step toward connection. Your presence may be exactly what someone else needs, and theirs may be what you need too.

Takeaways

• God created us for relationships, not isolation or self sufficiency.

• Feeling lonely does not mean something is wrong with you. It may mean you need more meaningful connection.

• Scripture calls us to notice others, carry one another’s burdens, and remain actively involved in each other’s lives.

• Being connected online cannot replace the emotional and spiritual benefits of being present with people.

• Sharing a meal is one of the simplest ways to deepen friendships and create a sense of belonging.

• Meaningful community rarely happens by accident. Someone has to extend the invitation.

• You do not need a perfect home, elaborate meal, or large gathering to practice hospitality.

• Presence is one of the most powerful and practical ways we can show love.

• A small act of reaching out can become the beginning of an important friendship.

Today's Action

Think of one person you can invite, call, visit, or share a meal with this week. Do not wait until your schedule, home, or circumstances feel perfect. Take one simple step toward connection.

Join us for Joy Camp Summer here - https://kristinfitch.com/joy

Grab the Rewire Your Mind: From Negativity to Joy- download here.

Grab the Joy Rising- Daily Gratitude & Joy Journal here.

Download My Free Joyful Living Devotional: https://kristinfitch.com/devotional

Ready to take your first step towards a more joyful, faith-filled life? Download our Reignite Your Passion Workbook and start living with purpose today!

Books I mentioned

Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara #ad

Everybody Always by Bob Goff #ad

Every Table an Alter by Ian Simkins #ad

The Turquoise Table by Kristin Schell #ad

Christian community, Christian friendships, feeling disconnected, overcoming loneliness, biblical friendship, God’s design for community, meaningful relationships, Christian hospitality, importance of community, how to make friends in midlife

As an associate, I earn from qualifying purchases from links above.

Podcast summary was created with the help of Chatgpt- AI

It is in the presence of each other, people live.

That's an Irish proverb.

And today we're going to talk about what does that mean from a biblical perspective, but also from a human perspective, and why this matters so much today more than ever.

Welcome to Faith Filled Living, the podcast for women who want to find joy again, grow closer to God, and rediscover the woman he created you to be.

I'm your host, Kristin Fritsch.

Each week you'll find encouragement, honest conversations, biblical perspective, and practical tools to help you experience more joy, purpose, and peace in everyday life.

Because the woman God created you to be is still there, and it's never too late to come alive to the life he created you to live.

Today's episode, I'm going to talk about why we need to reconnect with each other, why we need to be more present in each other's lives, and why we need to show up with wonder and enthusiasm.

So I started reading the book that's coming out next month called Every Table and Altar by Pastor Ann Simpkins, who I'll be interviewing and beginning of his book.

He's sharing that over the last 50 years, you know, basically, people are less happy, more people are lonely than ever, and I would say even more people are struggling with mental health and with depression.

And he shares what a writer from the Atlantic said, Emily Smith.

She says we volunteer less, we entertain guests at our homes less often, we are getting married less, we're having fewer children, we have fewer and fewer close friends with whom we'd share the intimate details of our lives.

We are denying our social nature and paying a price for it.

Over the same period of time that social isolation has increased, our levels of happiness have gone down, while rates of suicide, depression multiplied.

So let's talk about this today, and let's talk about what is the.

The root of what so many of us are feeling.

First of all, Scripture tells us things that direct us towards doing life with other people.

And I'll share First Philippians 2, 4, which says, Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also the interests of others.

So right there, we are supposed to be involved with other people's lives and care about what matters to them, right?

There's other parts of the Bible that say we should mourn when people mourn, we should laugh when people laugh.

So it's because.

Because we are meant to live in community.

In all of history, people have lived in a community or tribal structure.

You know what I mean?

Something like that.

And yet now, so Many of us live in the comfort of our home or our apartments, that we're often by ourselves, at least in physical sense.

And then the other scripture that I want to share with you is Galatians 6, 2, which says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.

And if you want one more, it's 1 Thessalonians 5:11, which says, Therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.

And what Pastor Ian Simpkin goes on to talk about is that so many of us aren't spending the time together.

And he's talking about how the table is so crucial to that.

And he just shows examples throughout the book of how Jesus often was at the table with other people, often people at that time that were considered outcasts or bad, like the tax collectors.

But how is this relevant to us?

Well, the first thing is he shares that the data shows that in the or 60 years ago, people spent about 90 minutes at dinner time together, and now it's about 12 minutes, if people are even sitting together.

So.

So I want to emphasize what the quote from the Atlantic writer said, which is, we basically aren't doing life with each other as much anymore, which is a problem.

So if we're not as connected with people because we're participating in life, because we're present, whether that's volunteering, whether it's inviting neighbors over, whether it's inviting family over, whether it's finding someone to share our lives with, whether or whether it's just going out and participating in the world, we are staying home more.

We are streaming shows.

And this definitely shifted during the beginning of COVID meaning that we were already moving in that direction with all of our digital devices and our streaming devices.

But when people started doing the lockdowns, if you will, people started getting used to being home and not participating in the same ways.

Yes, maybe you go to work, but how many other things are you doing outside of your house?

Maybe church, but.

So the first thing that I want to point out is we have to show up to do life with other people for so many reasons.

One, it supports the other people.

Two, it supports us.

Three, we will miss out on miracles, right?

Participating in things if we aren't there to actually know what someone needs or how we can be of assistance or encouraging them.

The next thing, though, is Pastor Simpkins explains that the table is such a big piece of this, Right?

So even Jesus was often, it's illustrated in the Bible, he was with other people around a table or sharing A meal throughout the entire Gospels.

And he says, Ian says this.

Pastor Ian Simpkins says this.

When we lose the table, we lose something God designed to be central to human flourishing.

We lose the place where strangers become friends, where enemies become family, where the hungry are led and where the lonely are seen.

We lose the space where presence, real, embodied, unhurried presence becomes the medium through which love is expressed and grace is experienced.

And it's so true.

There are certain friends of mine that I would see years ago, I rarely see.

They just are on autopilot and they just go about their daily routine, which that's okay.

But what I'm saying is we all have to make an effort, extend the invitation to other people.

We have to also be willing to go places and meet other people.

Just last night, I had my family over, which I do regularly.

But the honest truth is that sometimes I think to myself, would I have even seen some of my local family if I didn't extend the invitation?

Because we all get so busy in our own lives that it's easy to let a lot of time go by.

But what.

What happens when we do that?

Well, I would say the things that were said, we.

We become lonelier.

We feel more isolated.

We don't feel supported or seen or heard.

And today, my encouragement to each of you and myself is, are we showing up?

Are we being present?

And are we doing life with other people?

Because it literally is in our DNA.

We need to be connected to each other, to some group of people at least.

We need to be connected into a community.

We need to be connected to our creator.

And Pastor Simpkins also shares this line that I really liked.

Presence, I've come to believe, is the medium of love.

Isn't that so true?

Because when we're present with others and when we're with our family, our friends, our community, we, if we're willing, we are, we can be present, which is a form of love.

Now, I also want to point out, if we're with other people, but we're sitting on our phone the entire time, not fully engaged, not listening, not participating, then that's still one step towards what we want to be doing.

But we need to set our phones down, and we need to look each other in the eye.

Here's a couple questions for you.

Are you inviting others into your life or into your home?

Are you meeting people where they are?

Because Jesus didn't only eat with people that were just like him, right?

He met with anyone.

He was willing to sit down and listen.

He saw them for who they were and who he knew they could become.

And there's another book that's really good called that I read years ago.

It's called the Turquoise Table, and its subline is finding community and connection in your own front yard.

And the author, Kristen Schell, read the book because of many of the things I shared from the author in the Atlantic or the writer.

It's because she realized that she had all these neighbors that she had never met.

She felt so disconnected from the people that lived right near her.

So while a lot of people may not want to invite people into their homes or have a whole big to do in the backyard, what she realized is if I put my picnic table in the front yard, one, I'll see people and two, I can then just invite people to stop in.

So she painted her table, her picnic table, aqua or turquoise.

And then she started on, I think on Fridays, just inviting over neighbors that she did not know at that time or not really.

And she would just put out something simple, maybe coffee muffins in the morning, or it could be cookies and lemonade if it was later in the day.

But this practice started spreading and then other people wanted to do the same thing because we're busy and we get consumed with our daily lives and then we can live without building and being part of communities or growing our communities.

And so that's another beautiful book that talks about this that I love.

But the other thing that I want to share is not just do we want to be more present with people?

And we do.

And I would challenge each of us to do that, like figure out what could I do this week to be more available to people to extend an invitation, invite somebody to coffee, you know, show up somewhere you don't usually go, try something new where you might meet someone you know, new.

Actually, one of my girlfriends just shared with me her mom is in her 90s and she's still doing pretty well, health wise.

But she doesn't have a lot of friends.

Right.

Being she has a lot of family, but being in your 90s, she doesn't have a lot of friends that are still, if I'm being honest, around.

And so somebody they knew mutually had met a woman who was similar age and about a similar lifestyle, meaning they both were able to get out still and go to lunch and get around well.

So they connected, the two women in their 90s, and they were going to meet for lunch.

But how lovely is that?

And were they nervous?

Yes, My friend's mom was.

It was.

She was a little hesitant because she hasn't really gone and met a new friend in a very long time, but they had the best time, right?

And they had a lot of things in common and a lot of lived life experiences that were similar.

But don't be afraid to put yourself out there.

Don't be afraid to be the one that welcome.

Welcomes others in.

And don't always isolate yourself, show up.

And so that's the first thing that we just as humans, we need this, but also as Christians, we need to be participating in these ways.

But I actually want to challenge us to do more than that, to be more than that.

There's a book called Unreasonable Hospitality and it's by Will Gardara.

And yes, he's writing it because he actually works in the restaurant industry.

But the book is about so much more.

And I think it's a book worth reading.

And I love reading books that are about all different topics because I love applying what the book says to other parts of life.

Like where can that lesson be applied?

But what I love about what he says, and it's so while he's not saying it from a biblical perspective, it is so biblical.

What I love is in the book they give so many examples of giving people more than they expect.

In other words, going above and beyond.

So he's worked at different restaurants, but a lot of them are like very high end restaurants.

So that people are expecting a good experience, right?

They're paying a lot of money for that.

So these are kind of like restaurants that you go to for special occasions, memory makers or people that just love food.

But how do you even stand out compared to all the other choices that people could go?

And so he worked luckily under some people that had this sort of philosophy that he learned.

And I think he also learned it from his dad.

But the idea is you don't just want to give somebody what they expect or just high service, but if you can go above and beyond, you are creating a memory for them.

You're creating experience that they'll never forget.

And I love this and I think that more of us should be showing up this way.

I'm going to get back to his book in a minute, but if you've ever read any of Bob Goff's books and if you haven't, go pick them up, I love them.

One's called Everybody Always and another one of his books is called Dream Big and he has more than that.

But what I love is his book Everybody Always.

The tagline is becoming love in a world full of setbacks and difficult People.

But in one of his books, he shares so many examples where he did fantastical, wonderful things to help people.

Like one young guy he met on the beach, I think he was at the time he had a place maybe on the beach.

And he helps this guy that he doesn't even know do this amazing proposal for this girl.

But it was that, like, he didn't have to help this kid, but he was like, you know what?

Like, I can and I'm going to.

He goes all in, in other words.

And he goes all in so much that in the back of Bob's books, he puts his cell phone number.

I mean, he doesn't answer it every time, but he answers thousands upon thousands of calls from strangers all the time.

Because he makes himself available.

He is present and he engages with people and he inspires people because he says, why wouldn't I make myself available?

And I think we need to strive for that in our lives.

Maybe we're not going to be a Bob Golf in the world.

Maybe we're going to be a much smaller, you know, do it in a much smaller way.

But I think, what a way, what a thing to strive for.

But back to the book, Unreasonable Hospitality.

So basically, he goes on to explain in the book, he tells lots of lessons, right, that he's learned from working in the hospitality.

The restaurant industry, talks about leadership and things.

But what I love is the whole, like, how do you give people go above and beyond.

How do you go above people's expectations to delight them, is what I'd say.

I think the word I'd say is delighting them.

Delighting people.

But he gives all these examples where they do these amazing things for their clients.

Their clients are just coming in for dinner maybe one time, maybe regularly.

So I'm just going to share an example with you.

He says there was a couple that came in splurging on dinner to console themselves after their vacation flight was canceled.

And then he says, we turned the private dining room into a private beach, complete with beach chairs and sand on the ground, a kiddie pool filled with water they could stick their toes into, and they drowned their disappointment in tropical daiquiris decorated with little umbrellas.

And he gives other examples where people had just moved into a new house or a new neighborhood.

And he ended up.

They ended up hiring staff that what they did is they would literally do a hand drawing of whatever the person was celebrating, like on the fly that night.

So why do I share that?

Because it might seem so far from most of our realities, most of our Day to day.

It's because what if we could bring more excitement into our lives because we showed up ready to participate in wonderful things, participate in delighting other people?

And I like what Will goes on to say.

He says, most importantly, we have an opportunity, a responsibility to make magic in a world that desperately needs more of it.

And my question is, how can we be more audacious, more generous, more enthusiastic, and more unreasonable in the best way possible?

Because I think the world needs a lot more of us to be that way, to live that way.

And then Will goes on to quote Richard Curran, who he worked with and I think also wrote a book.

And he says, all it takes for something extraordinary to happen is one person with enthusiasm.

How good is that?

And even the Bible talks about a similar concept.

Let me see if I can pull it up.

It's Luke 5:26, which says, and amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, we have seen extraordinary things today.

And I love that, because what if we showed up looking for extraordinary things?

What if we showed up looking for the miracles?

And what if we should have saying to God, use me.

Let me be part of the miracles you have in store for the people around me today.

And Will goes on to talk about in his book Improvisational Hospitality.

But it's basically like just on the fly, like, how can you help somebody?

How can you go out of your way?

It can be little things.

It can be big, big things.

But he says it might not work as a terrible reason not to try.

Find the third option.

He also says that it's really about being intentional in what we do, in what we're noticing and what we decide to participate in and how we want to show up.

He says intention means every decision from the most obvious, obviously significant, to the seemingly mundane matters.

But what if we showed up every day that way that everything we do matters?

And that when we show up in enthusiasm and when we show up to say, how could I make someone else's life better in the most wonderful way, how do we shift that person's life?

How do we shift how we feel about our participation in the world?

And how do we shift the world one little bit at a time?

It's much like that idea of.

What is it called?

It's, you know, it's a passing on kindness.

You know what I mean?

Like, passing it forward?

Is that what it's called?

But, you know, doing one nice thing, like paying for coffee for the person behind you to come.

Sometimes when we do this or if we said, you know what, I want to show up this way, and whatever that means.

Sometimes it's going to be small things.

Dropping off flowers to your neighbor's front step.

It might be when you're having family or people over that you are making some of the things from scratch because it's a recipe your family loves or remembers, or because you're caring for them.

And so you know that there's different food issues.

It might be an experience I've shared before.

Now, this wasn't delighting anybody, but it is showing up to surprise people.

I was in the grocery store months ago, and it was.

It was like a.

The worst rain, you know, like a storm had come through.

It was torrential downpouring.

And I got out of the grocery store.

I did not bring an umbrella or a windbreaker because I didn't know it there was going to be a storm.

And I'm standing underneath the.

The COVID outside of the store, and there's several people standing there waiting, trying to decide, like, oh, gosh, this is, like, too heavy to.

To go through.

So I finally decide, okay, the storm's not going away.

I'm going to make a run for it.

So I make a run for it with my groceries, and I load my car.

I'm literally drenched.

I mean, I'm saturated.

There's not a bit of me that isn't soaked.

But I see several older women standing there that were waiting underneath the COVID And so I say, you know what?

I'm going to go back, right?

I have that little inkling, that little voice that said, you know what?

I could help them.

So I grabbed my umbrella, and I actually realized I have two.

So I grabbed both umbrellas.

I walk back towards them, and one of the women is noticing me coming back.

And so I say to two of the women, would you like me to walk you to your car?

I have an extra umbrella.

And the one woman looks at me, and she decides, like, yeah, okay.

So I take her to her car, and then she gives me the umbrella.

We get her in, you know, mostly not getting wet.

And then I went back, and I asked the other woman, does she.

Would she like me to help her to her car?

And she said no.

For whatever reason, she was hesitant.

I asked several times.

But the point is, is I didn't delight the woman that I walked to her car, but I did surprise her, because how many people go back in the pouring rain to help other people that were just standing there?

So how do we show up in that way, but go even beyond that, how do we be bobcaufs in the world?

How do we be people like Will who work in hospitality and that work with other people that are going above and beyond every day to delight people, to surprise them, to.

To make an experience for somebody that they'll never forget?

I think at the end of the day, what today's episode is about is how can we be more present, how can we participate more?

How can we see wonder and be part of wonder in the world?

But at the end of the day, it's, how can we see people, how can we hear them, how can we listen?

How can we identify with what they're going through?

And then how can we, one little moment at a time, make their lives better?

It could be just by giving them a handhold, a hug, by smiling, saying hello by the person we're passing on the street.

But it could also be because we do things that are unexpected in the world.

And isn't that exactly how God shows up?

He does the unexpected every single day.

He does the miraculous every single day.

There's a quote by.

Well, that's sometimes attributed to Albert Einstein, whether he said it or not.

But it's.

There's two ways to live.

And this is not an exact quote, but basically it's, you can either see everything as a miracle or nothing as a miracle.

Well, I want to live in a world like that.

I don't want to live in a world where everything is dark and dreary and sad and hard, because guess what?

We're going to walk through those things.

But how do we see the blessings?

How do we see the people that are walking alongside of us?

How do we be those people?

And so today, I just want to encourage you.

How can you show up and be Christlike?

How can you show up and extend the invitation?

How can you show up and be somebody that shows hospitality to others and whatever that means for you, there's not one way to do that.

And how do we just show up with people in their humanness and walk alongside them, whether it's someone we're going to only see for one encounter, or whether we're going to see them and walk alongside them every single day, like our family or our friends?

So that's my encouragement for you today.

And I'll have more guest interviews coming up in September and into the fall, and I can't wait to share those with you.

And in the meantime, I would love for you to go grab my Joy Camp Summer.

And I know we're getting to the end of summer.

But basically it's a invitation and a workbook that can help you step into more joy by noticing more, by looking for wonder, by connecting with God, by serving someone else this week.

You know, doing something little for people, being grateful.

But anyways, it's a great resource.

If you go to KristinFitch.com, you can either grab that workbook or I have so many others.

I have a devotional, I have a Rewire your mind workbook and so many more.

Maybe you're somebody that's just feeling like the world seems a little drab and life feels a little monotonous.

Grab my Reignite youe Passion workbook.

It's perfect for people that need to just remember who they are and who God made them to be and step into more things that excite you.

So anyways, grab any of those you want and then you will also then get become part of my email community where most weeks I share a Faith Friday email with you just to encourage you in life and you know, give you a couple things to think about.

So I'd love for you to join us.

Just head to KristinFitch.com and grab one of my workbooks.

So until next time, I hope you have a beautiful, wonderful, miraculous and extraordinary weekend.

If you enjoyed today's episode, if you could leave a rating review on Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, it helps the show get discovered by more people so that we can continue to uplift and encourage people in their faith journey as well as all of the other parts of their lives.