Out Of The Office

Not having to prepare a sermon this weekend has given me the opportunity to spend Thursday and Friday working on next year's sermon series plans and to work on my writing project. To get away from the telephone I've moved my office to Panera Bread (wireless internet access and great Lemonade). Anyhow, the people-watcher and eavesdropper in me has been stimulated as I've sat here for the better part of the last two days. Let me tell you about some of the folks who have stopped by 'my office'. This will be the first in a few parts.

There were three men who sat next to me during the breakfast hour yesterday. I took note when one of them mentioned that he had been learning about prayer from a man at his church. Seems this prayer mentor had spent a number of years arising from bed while his wife was still asleep, slipping into some sweatpants (I don't get the significance, just telling you what I heard), and dropped to his knees next to his bed and prayed for several minutes before getting up and into his day. The man speaking said that he began giving that method a try and it had become a huge blessing to him. Now, after a few weeks, he hoped that it has become a routine. One of the other men said that maybe he'd give that method a try. The third man said he couldn't pry himself out of bed one minute before he had to be up, so perhaps the evening would work for him. How cool that these three guys were having this conversation.

Not long after they left two women took the same table. One of the two looked really familiar to me. A 'behind the scenes into Darin's life confession': something that really makes me uneasy in public is when someone looks familiar to me, because I worry that perhaps I've met them through my ministry and should remember who they are. I overheard a part of their conversation. One woman is planning to leave her husband. The other woman was giving her advice on how to tell her kids. She said, 'Your kids will thank you one day.' I wondered what the circumstances are, that perhaps her kids would thank her. It must be very bad. Or, perhaps her friend is giving her very bad advice. Deciding to take a chance, I caught the familiar looking lady's eye (the one giving the advice) and interupted, "Excuse me, do I know you? You look very familiar to me." After a few awkward moments of chatting it was pretty clear we had never met before. And, no. I didn't follow that with 'I'm a Pastor and I couldn't help but overhearing...' I wondered, should I have? Would you?

A couple of Souhegan students, a guy and a girl, showed up in the afternoon. I should clarify: I assume they were SHS students by the athletic sweatshirt he was wearing. They sat a couple of tables away from me. At one point I overheard the girl say, "I think God knows who I will marry one day." I'm not sure where she was going with it, or in what context that came up. I suppose that just the mention of God in conversation between two high school students was what caught my attention. Cool.

I watched a mom and her young daughter - I'd have guessed she was about two - standing, waiting for their order to be ready. The mom held the electronic pager for the order, and her little girl stomped around in circles, her tiny shoes had a noise maker built in. Her excitement and energy in trying to make her shoes sound off, the smile it put on her watching mother's face, and the annoyance I saw on other patrons faces, all caught my attention. I wish my shoes made noise. Not really, but I wondered why seeing a young child be a young child so bothered grown-ups around her. They've forgotten the wonder of being young.

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