This past Sunday, I went with a couple of friends and my kids to a local skatepark. We’ve been here before. We were on a mission to LoveBomb. What is a LoveBomb? It’s the act of making, serving and sharing a meal for unsuspecting people. Especially people not in your typical circle of friends. The idea is to reach outside of yourself and get to know people you normally wouldn’t. We are on the beginning of this LoveBomb journey!
We have gone to Ridge a couple of times now. When we started, we were looked on like an oddity…the boys couldn’t figure out our angle, our catch for coming and making them a hot meal and a good one at that! We’ve made things like bacon cheeseburgers and beef bbq. We’ve served up hot cider and homemade brownies. We try not to skimp on the ingredients or cheat on the menu. We serve what we would eat. In the beginning the boys wanted to know what we wanted in return. Who we were. Why anyone in their right mind would make a meal for a bunch of kids most people choose to ignore.
Our answer: “This is what we call a LoveFeast.” “We just came to share a meal with you and hear your stories.”
It really is as simple as that.
What if more of us took time to share a meal with a group of people usually written off by society. Or to break bread with some group you just don’t understand. What if we took time to meet people where they are, instead of expecting them to meet us where we are? What if we took time to break out of our comfort zones and push past our fears to serve someone else, without strings attached? What would that do to our communities? Our cities?
As I’m writing this post, I’m getting excited! I am really passionate about this part of LoveFeast. I have a bunch of LoveBomb locations tumbling around in my brain. I just recently found out about a gathering of taggers (people who spray paint words on buildings, buses, trains)…it’s underground, not sure how I’d find out about such a location, but what if…what if…a group of us went with tables, covered in canvas (as the table cloth…equipped with paint markers)…and we heated up a grill and threw on some petite filet? What if we made them a meal their mouths would not soon forget? During dinner we listened to their stories and let them paint pictures in our minds of the places they’ve visited and things they’ve seen…as they ate, they drew on the canvas… Or how about, going to the worst inner city school and delivering coffee and homemade muffins to the teachers before their day started, just to say thank you for teaching the kids no one else wants to teach. Or what if, I planned a meal of roasted chicken and hot dumplings for our shut in neighbor across the street, took it to her with an extra plate and spent an hour listening?
Just some of my LoveBomb musings…If you were to LoveBomb, where would you go? Who would you make a meal for? What would that meal be?
