Everybody Is Home
Numbers 11:17 · Romans 12:13 (NIV)
On September 29, the writer Derek Thompson published an essay with a hard title: You Are No Longer Invited to Dinner. Thompson studies how Americans spend their time, together and alone. This time he looked at the dinner table.
He set two surveys side by side, one begun in the 1970s and one taken this year. In 1975, 42 percent of Americans said they hosted friends or family at home at least once a month. In 2026, the number is 12 percent. Thompson describes a decline of roughly 70 percent. The newer survey repeated questions from the earlier one, but this is still a comparison across surveys, not a record of the same people over time. The title captures a concern, not every household: more time at home can mean less time together.
Thompson lays the blame on no one person. He calls it a problem of coordination. Two parents work. Children's schedules fill every evening. Close friendships are shrinking, fastest among people with less money. And the house itself has become a very comfortable place to be alone. Thompson describes our homes as "personalized entertainment fortresses."
Fortress is an old word in Scripture. Psalm 46 says, "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." Twice it says, "the God of Jacob is our fortress." The psalm places the fortress in GOD. Thompson finds people building their own, room by room and screen by screen. A home can shelter us. It can also become a place where nobody knows what we are carrying. Privacy, rest, and safe boundaries matter. The invitation here is to connection we can trust.
Many of us sit inside those walls carrying something heavy. Have you felt pressure to pretend everything is fine, even when you are hurting? Pain can stay unseen behind a closed door. Nobody comes over. Nobody knows to ask.
Scripture shows two leaders who chose another way.
When the king of Assyria sent Hezekiah of Judah a letter full of threats, the Bible says Hezekiah read it, went up to the temple of the LORD, “and spread it out before the Lord.” Isaiah 37:14, NIV. He laid the whole thing open, every word, in front of GOD.
Moses did the same with his own exhaustion. He told GOD, “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.” GOD answered him with help. HE told Moses to gather seventy elders and promised to share with them the power of the Spirit that was on him. They would share the burden, “so that you will not have to carry it alone.” Numbers 11:14–17, NIV.
Paul gives the church its own call to shared care. “Carry each other’s burdens,” he writes to the Galatians. Three verses later he adds, “each one should carry their own load.” Galatians 6:2, 5, NIV. Paul uses two different words there. The different words can help us hear both mutual care and personal responsibility. They are not a rigid rule dividing every difficulty into two kinds. In context, Paul calls for gentle restoration, humility, and an honest look at our own conduct. Helping one another does not cancel responsibility. Responsibility does not cancel help.
Walt Larimore, a physician and author who writes on what the Bible says about loving one another, puts it in plain terms in his reading plan. He describes "friends who do not disappear when the crisis extends beyond two weeks." He describes people who show up after a death with presence and meals.
Meals. A table. That is often where a burden gets shared.
Paul again, this time to the Romans: “Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” Romans 12:13, NIV. Practice is a fair word for it. We can learn as we go. The house need not be spotless. The pasta can be plain. The evening may be awkward. Thompson admits a dinner party asks far more of us than a screen does. It takes planning, food, patience, and the risk of a dull night. It also puts real people in the same room.
Hospitality will not cure loneliness on a schedule. It earns nothing from GOD. Some readers have no table, no money to spare, or no strength left this month. Thompson notes that hosting is drifting toward a luxury. For some of us, hospitality this week looks like a phone call, a seat saved at church, or a plate carried across the hall.
Irenaeus, the second-century bishop of Lyon who wrote against the false teachers of his day, did a small thing in the middle of a long argument. He stopped and prayed for every reader of his book. He asked GOD to let each one know HIM and be strengthened in HIM. Even a scholar's argument made room for someone else.
It does leave me thinking about how many of us are home tonight with the lights on and the burden folded up out of sight.
Everybody is home. GOD is the fortress, so we do not have to be. The letter can be spread out before HIM, and the load can be shared. Somewhere this week, a table can hold one more chair.
I am not here to prove myself. I am here to make HIM visible.
🙏 To the one who is home tonight carrying something heavy alone, Moses told GOD it was too much, and GOD sent help.
🙏 To the one who has been pretending everything is fine, spread it out before the LORD.
🙏 To the one who wants to open the house but feels it is not ready, the table does not have to be perfect.
🙏 To the one who has no table to offer, a phone call can offer welcome too.
Grace and Peace.
Sources: Derek Thompson, September 29, 2026; Psalm 46, NIV; Isaiah 37:14, NIV; Numbers 11:14–17, NIV; Galatians 6:1–5, NIV; Romans 12:13, NIV; Walt Larimore, What the Bible Says About Loving One Another, day 8; Irenaeus, Against Heresies III.6.4. Scripture quotations: New International Version (NIV).