Go First Challenge Week 2: Invite
In case my enormous messy bun or death-grip on no-show socks didn’t give away my status as a Millennial, let me totally reveal it by telling you one of my all-time favorite movies is Mean Girls. Remember that scene where Queen Bee Mean Girl Regina George sits down at her regular lunch table wearing sweatpants on a Monday, which was in violation of afore agreed upon rules of the group, and the other girls confront her about it? The confrontation ultimately ends with her friend, Gretchen Weiners, shrieking, “YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US!”
It’s a pretty impactful scene, at least for a movie aptly named, “Mean Girls,” because it stirs up a spectrum of emotions for us, the viewers. There’s a little bit of smug justice, Regina is finally getting what she had coming. But there’s also deep empathy. The fear of being rejected by the people with whom we want to be in relationship is a fear we’ve all felt. It marks a turning point in the conflict of the movie; that rejection shifts Regina’s identity and catapults her to essentially burning down the dysfunctional kingdom she built.
Behold: the power of rejection.
In our other hand, though, we also get to hold the power of acceptance, of invitation, of welcome. The live-giving words, “Would you like to sit with me?”
I’m not sure if we ever fully leave that high school kid behind, the one coming into a new space, wishing for a seat to be saved for us, wondering if it’s safer to just sit alone. Don’t make her wonder. Go first, pull out that chair, and say, “Would you like to sit by me?”
That’s Brooke Tubyfill and my challenge for you this week:
ask someone to sit with you.
It can be asking someone to sit at your lunch table at work. It can be inviting a parent to sit with you at a practice. Or maybe sliding down a few seats at church to make room for someone else. Be on the lookout and go first, who needs a place to sit?
And then tell me about it! Instagram peeps, tell me here, Facebook Friends, hop over here, and non-social media people, jump over to Substack.
