On Learning Patience

I have a lot of random pet peeves.

Ending sentences with "at." Now even as an English major I never considered myself a grammar nazi, but lately this is grating on my nerves. At work one day:

Customer: "Where the restrooms at?"
Me: "You mean, where are the restrooms?"
Customer: "Yeah, where the restrooms at?"
Me: *Face palm*

Being served water in a restaurant before I get the chance to order my own drink (I then feel obligated to drink it because otherwise it gets wasted. I'm very big on not wasting things).

Being called Sarah (someone recently tried to argue that the name Sarah is "close enough." That's like saying Chinese and Japanese people look the same because they're both Asian).

Lately, what bothers me the most is not having quiet time to read/listen to music (the two activities go hand-in-hand for me). Living at the Y in the Rockies is cool and everything, but the lack of privacy is seriously wearing at my patience. Just when I think I've found a nice, quiet place to chill out, some guy sits two feet away from me and starts Skyping.

Uhh, seriously????

Maybe I'm being unreasonable. I know I don't own any of the Y grounds, so what right do I have to complain? Still, it really irks me that, just as a courtesy to his fellow neighbor, this guy (and others like him) couldn't find another place to talk loudly that wasn't directly next to someone who was trying to concentrate and/or contemplate life.

This is becoming another big stumbling block for me this summer. At least when I'm home, if Starbucks is getting noisy, I have the freedom to get in my car and go somewhere else. Not so much here. I've been praying for more patience, and I'm getting better: now I just give an "Are you kidding me?" stare instead of groaning loudly :D Maybe someday before the summer's over, I'll get to a place where I won't be bothered as much.

Anyway, I feel it's relevant to re-post a story from my former amateur high school blog, written a couple months ago, about getting ticked off by loud people while I'm trying to read, and the interesting ways that God gets my attention when I'm not in the most Christian of moods. It's called "How I Got Pwned by Jesus." Enjoy! :)

To celebrate finishing my first semester of my senior year, I went to Starbucks for a much-deserved peppermint mocha and an unread C.S. Lewis book. As I'm reading, a middle-aged-ish man sits next to me and is having a LOUD phone conversation. Now I'm guilty of having phone calls in coffee shops, but never longer than a minute or so to confirm plans or to find out where someone is. But if you're going to have an in-depth conversation, lasting upwards of half an hour, it would really be best for everyone around you if you could take it outside. Or just not answer your phone.

I'm too nice to say "Hey dude, pipe down before I throw that fancy iphone out the bleeping window!" So instead I stare him down with devil eyes. He doesn't get the message, and it's too crowded to get up and find somewhere else to sit. I'm getting really mad. All I want is to relax with my book and my mocha, and I don't care if people around me are talking, because it's not necessary to YELL at someone sitting next to you the way you'd yell into a phone in a crowded coffee house.

Half a century later, he hangs up and turns to me. I gulp, expecting to get yelled at for staring. But instead he says "Miss, is that a C.S. Lewis book you're reading?"

This is definitely not what I expected. "Yes it is." I show him the cover.
"Interesting. Nice to see young folks reading real books these days." Now I feel a little bad for being rude, even though, in my defense, he was being rude first. It's always nice to prove somebody wrong about the lack of intelligence infecting my generation. I'm okay with him thinking I'm smart But then he continues, "Which one of his books would you recommend to someone who's never read his stuff before?"

"Mere Christianity" I tell him. "That's my favorite." It's also the most common-sense explanation of Christianity I've ever read, one of the first books I'd recommend to a skeptic besides the Bible.

"Huh. You know, I've been interested in faith for a while now. I think I was meant to sit next to you today."

OHHHH. Jesus: Ten points, Sarahbeth: zero. If there had been an available seat I would have gotten up and moved, after one final stare down to make him feel guilty for ruining my zone-out time. But no, as he so eloquently pointed out, he was meant to sit next to me today so I could sing the praises of the greatest theologian of the 20th century, whose book just might help bring this guy to faith.

And that, my friends, is the story of how I got pwned by Jesus.