This letter marks the final weekly letter of my first year of ministry at Asbury!

My next letter will be the first of my second year here at the church. As I have reflected on this
past year, one lesson keeps returning to me:

There is a chair at the table for a reason.

Have you ever gone out to dinner with someone who was extraordinarily and extravagantly
generous? They order appetizers, drinks, desserts, and entrées without hesitation. They ask the
chef questions, encourage everyone to try something new, and seem to take delight in the
dinner experience itself.

Meanwhile, you are quietly doing the menu math in your head.

You know what is in your bank account. You know what you planned to spend. With every added
item that arrives at the table, your anxiety grows. You are no longer enjoying the meal; you are
calculating the cost. Have you been there?

Then comes the dreaded question from the server:

“Will this be one check or two?”

Time seems to stop. You avoid eye contact with your friend. You begin reaching for your wallet.
You are ready to say, “Two checks.”

But before the words leave your mouth, the person who invited you speaks up:

“I’ve got it. Tonight is on me. My gift to you!”

In that moment, relief washes over you. Yet you cannot help but wonder how much of the
evening you missed because you were so focused on paying for something that was never
yours to pay for in the first place.

I think Heaven works a lot like that.

Psalm 23 tells us that God prepares a table before us, even in the presence of our enemies.
Every day we sit at that table, and all kinds of things are placed before us: joy and grief, hope
and disappointment, peace and anxiety, love and loss, certainty and doubt.

Too often we spend our energy trying to figure out how we are going to pay for it all. How are we
going to fix it? Carry it? Control it? Solve it?

But God never intended for us to pay the bill.

The good news of the Gospel is that the price has already been paid! Grace has already
covered the cost. Our invitation is not to earn our place at the table but simply to take our seat.

That image has helped me tremendously this year. There have been moments when I felt the
weight of challenges larger than my capacity, problems beyond my ability to solve, and
questions without clear answers. In those moments, then and now, I have been reminded that
not everything placed before me is mine to carry. Sometimes God’s invitation is simply to sit at
the table and trust that God is already at work.

As I conclude my first year at Asbury, that is the lesson I carry with me. The same God who has
sustained this congregation for 190 years is sustaining us now. The hand that carried previous
generations is strong enough for this season and faithful enough for whatever comes next.

So, beloved, take your seat.

The table has already been prepared.

The meal has already been paid for.

And God is still serving grace.
Amen.

Rev. Dr. Ronald Bell, II