I’ve been sitting at Panera’s several days a week for an hour or hours editing my books. Even though I often find myself making new friends, I’m less distracted than I am at home where responsibilities beckon.

Today I’m killing time editing at Panera waiting for my friend Emma to wake up for our weekly Wednesday visit. When I got here there was someone at “my table” by the fire and a lady sitting in one of these leather chairs.

I asked if she minded if I sit in the other. She abruptly said “as long as you don’t expect me to keep you company.” With a smile I said “perfect, I’ll be working on my book.” She simply said “good.”

As I started editing, I thought about how unfriendly she was. I wondered if she was as lonely and isolated of a person as my first impression would have me believe she was. Rude. That’s the word. I just thought she was so rude.

I wondered what in her life was so sucky that this was the best she had to offer in being at least polite. I took a moment to pray for her….mostly so God could help correct the attitude I was starting to get towards her in my own heart.

My table soon opened up and I moved to spread out and work. As I worked I would notice her glance up at me, then look back at the fire. I pretended not to notice because if she was looking for me to interrupt her peaceful moment, she would be disappointed….I learned how to resist the temptation last January.

About 45 minutes in, I was super frustrated! My stupid book table of contents wouldn’t let me add page numbers without screwing up the whole formatting.

I glanced at this woman and thought, she might be grumpy and she might want to be left alone but it’s possible she knows something about tables in Word.

I said “excuse me. I don’t want to be a bother but do you know anything about tables in Word?” She asked me a technical question I didn’t know how to answer so I brought my computer to show her what was happening.

The answer was so simple. I thanked her. She said she needed to go. As she was putting on her coat she said something under her breath about not being late for her follow up doctors appointment.

I asked if everything was ok. She told me she had her appendix out 10 days ago and recovery was slower and more painful than she imagined. I asked her if I could pray with her before she left. She looked at me stunned. Thought for a moment then said “ok.”

As I prayed, God gave me such compassion for her and reminded me that when people aren’t kind, they’re not doing it to us, they’re doing it in front of us.