A seat at the table
June 25, 2025
By Jeff Becraft
Last week I was at a week-long retreat with a children’s home. As part of this retreat, we all have meals together. We wait until everyone is seated before we start. There were 48 of us total during this week-long camp. Being that I am old and grumpy, there were times when I was a half step behind (ok… maybe a full step). And I would show up to a table and say to the person next to the open seats, “Who’s sitting here?” To which they would respond, “You are!”
That is a great feeling to know that you have a seat at the table. It’s just a simple thing, but those few moments of, “Hey, we would want you to be at the table with us,” can send a powerful message to the person that we’re talking to. How often is a person standing there in various situations, wondering where they will sit and they are just left hanging… and then they feel like they are really not part of what’s going on and they don’t feel wanted or valued.
It is a simple thing for us to keep our eyes and hearts open and simply be watching out for those people… a person who needs a seat at the table.
To invite them to join us can have a long-range effect on someone’s life. It sends a message to that person that they are valued.
Or we can have the mentality of “us four and no more”… which is an extremely safe way to live. But it is not nearly as exciting and does not have the same impact on people’s lives around us.
Jeff Becraft is the Director of Our Place of Hope and the Director Emeritus for Youth Corps and has dedicated much of his life to helping shift the vision of people’s lives. Our Place of Hope is a paradigm shift for people living with mental illness that encourages them to regain meaning, purpose, and hope for their lives. You can connect with Jeff at [email protected].
