Finding Rest in Weird Places

Friday is a day that I have reserved in my schedule to seek out some peace, some time alone, and perhaps some time with a friend. Most often there's such a pile of stuff to do that I never do that (see post before last!). Today I woke up to a cold rainy day on the Coast. Some of our teen boys were to go to the camp to spend the night and do some work tomorrow. I was the designated driver. To tell you the truth, I did not want to go in this weather ... it was a big downer to me. So I risked the wrath of a bunch of teenage boys and told them I thought it was best we didn't go. I felt soooo relieved. Free! Able to ... relax? Great! I jumped in my little truck and drove to the office. I picked up a journal, a Bible, and a book I've been reading slowly through. I first went to the Christian bookstore in town ... I love to walk through there. I needed to buy a Bible for a lady who has been baptized last week. That done, I didn't know where to go. If I were in some other city I could go to a hip and trendy coffee house with comfy sofas and coffee confections ... but that's not going to happen here. I decided to go by the mall and look in a store...I did that ... but I was hungry and there was nothing there I wanted to eat. I drove on over to the next town. I had my Building 429 CD blasting. It was still raining. Hey, I'll call my preacher friend Al over here and see if he wants to get together. While looking on my cellular phone menu, I failed to notice that the truck in front of me had stopped at a red light! I barely skidded to a stop, sliding on the wet street ... but safe... so I laughed about it. Then I blamed Al for my near mishap ... especially since he didn't answer his phone! I drove around some looking for some place that looked promising as a hang out for a few hours. Unimaginatively, I ended up at a Burger King on a very busy corner. A group of ladies came in at the same time I did. From listening to their conversation, I determined that eating at Burger King was a kind of special thing for them, and they were not used to eating this high on the hog. I helped one of them know how to get some ice in their cup from the self-serve beverage bar. I sat a good ways from them, but they were loud and continually pecking on one another. The two grown daughters told their mother that she was stingy. All I heard the mother say was, "I don't like these damn pickles!" I sat in the corner of the mostly empty restaurant and read, contemplated, watched traffic, saw a train pass, wrote down ideas ... and generally enjoyed the peace and quiet until my friend Steve arrived. We talked for about an hour and had a good visit. Then it was time for me to come home ... it was dark, and I was ready to enter back into my life again. Really, there's nothing all that special about what I did. I actually felt a bit inadequate to even direct myself to someplace to sit down and think. But I found some rest in a weird place where no one expects to find peace of mind. I'm thankful.