Today at the post office

I was at the post office today and I had a book with me that Ann Miruski had given me called 'The Christian Atheist'. After I was finished with my business there, I left to go find a mailbox (yeah I know, I was just at the post office...) in which to drop the letter. I found the box, mailed the letter, and headed back to the store. It took me about 20 minutes to realize I'd left my book at the post office, and I busted out of the store at top speed, which in these boots kind of hurts.

When I got to the post office, a lady was thumbing through the book. I approached, out of breath, and said, "Hey... that's my... book... I left it... here... about 20... minutes ago." The lady continued to thumb through the book without looking up. I didn't want to be rude, but I really wanted that book back. I was almost finished with it. Maybe she just hadn't heard me.

"Yeah... that's my book," I said, my breath returning to me. "I left it here."

"Oh, yes, I was just looking at it. Very interesting. Where did you get it?"

I explained how Ann had given it to me. She thumbed through it some more, nodded her head in approval, then handed the book to me with a big smile. At this point I felt a little guilty at immediately just wanting the book back. A lot of the time I misjudge people's motives because of my inherent selfishness and tendency to jump to conclusions. At this point we began to talk a little bit about the title of the book and what it meant, and then she opened it to a couple of specific parts which she thought were interesting. She must have found that book immediately after I left, because she had apparently read a good bit of it. She was genuinely interested in it, and I'm almost finished with it, so I offered to give it to her.

"Oh no, don't do that. No, you keep it. This way, you can go back and re-read the important parts. Here, do this..." she opened the book to a page we had just been talking about. "Like this part here. Take a pencil and underline it and put the date next to it. But do that to the parts that you find important. Go back in the book and find the parts that made an impact on you and underline them and put the date next to the passage. Then later you can reflect on those parts when they become relevant to you. You'll have the date and it will help you to remember why you thought it was important then, and it will help you figure out why it's important to you at that particular time in the future."

I thanked her and we talked a little more. I told her how I was a recent convert to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and she described how she had turned to God 14 years ago when she had hit rock bottom, drunk and homeless. By this time we had migrated outside, and as she turned to go, she said "Keep that book, keep God in your heart, and don't ever forget that it's His grace that makes everything possible. Good luck!" And with that, plus a big smile, she turned and walked away.