I'm in Panera right now. There's something surreal going on behind me.
A few moments ago, a couple of young women came in and sat behind me. One of them was talking about some group she just joined where each person in the group does an extensive study of one book of the Bible all year long and then the group gets together to talk about what they've read. The woman's mother apparently joined this group a while ago and has been talking to one of her friends in some other state who is also doing the program. Anyway, the other woman thought it sounded really neat, so they were going to sit down and talk about it... However, they were hungry, so they went up to get food first.
So they go up to get their food from the Panera people. They sit down... And... Before they ate... They prayed. They prayed at a Panera. It wasn't the standard, "bless this mess" prayer that you might hear at someone's house (not anyone in my immediate family). It was a major prayer. It wasn't only thanking "Lord" (whoever that is) for the food, but also for their lives and for His plan for them and all of that. They thanked "Lord" for the time they had to sit at Panera and have some good food and hopefully get some work done too. It went on FOR A LONG TIME. It was pretty ... impressive.
What was funny is that a few minutes later the woman started talking about how hard her bread was. She said her favorite part was the bread and it just was too hard today. She was really disappointed... This was after that long prayer thanking "Lord" for all the food!!
Then they went on to talk about which books each of them would study.
I'm not kidding. This really happened. Panera has turned into the twilight zone...
On a related note, check out the "Soul for Sale" story from Weekend America this week (the audio should be available now):
A few months ago, a Chicago graduate student auctioned off a chance to save his soul on eBay, and an ex-pastor in Seattle was the lucky bidder. Both started out with their own secret motive, but through the exchange, they’ve developed a unique relationship. Independent producer Blake Farmer caught up with the men to find out what they’re doing now.
Oh, now one of them is going on about a woman she lived with when she was in college. Apparently her roommate's boyfriend lived down the street and was always over... "He had keys and everything." She was really upset about it...
Okay, time to get back to work... This is really distracting though.
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