I sit in a stuffed chair in a Christian coffee shop.<\/p>\n
Christian reggae plays.<\/p>\n
The barista appears as a tired, long-haired angel, if angels wore noserings and clubbed until dawn before their morning shift.<\/p>\n
Before I leave, I’ll stash some of my secular books in the lending library. I’m sure they’ll be removed forthwith, although the rain book has plenty of Christian iconography. I was a preacher’s kid after all.<\/p>\n
Several Bible<\/i> groups meets around large square tables.<\/p>\n
Curiously, ESPN plays on three flatscreen televisions hanging from the rafters among wooden crosses wrapped in white Christmas lights. Why not CBN? I guess management understands the proper religious hierarchy when it comes to Gods and spiritual programming.<\/p>\n
A street minister in blue jeans comes in wearing a Bluetooth and discusses his work with the homeless camped near the swamp in tents and tepees and dog igloos. He is trying to help them live a more ecologically attuned life, meaning getting along with the beavers by not stealing their food.<\/p>\n
One wonders if America’s staggering homelessness is remotely solvable as a social calamity.<\/p>\n
I notice a Dictionary of Paul’s Letters<\/i>. I must possess that book although I’ll certainly never read it because Paul is far and away my least favorite character in the Bible<\/i>. I even like Pontius Pilate and Pharaoh more than Paul.<\/p>\n
Surrounded by Christianity, my mind returns to my years as a preacher’s kid. There is a novel or memoir or confessional in that experience for sure. It’s already written in my head.<\/p>\n
Marvin Gaye comes on. I guess there is a God.<\/p>\n
I often believe I would have made a good preacher…dressed in corduroy vestments, with the ocean as my holy book and the gulls and eagles as my congregants. I also believe my qualification to serve as a preacher man is bolstered by my witnessing a hummingbird flying through fire. Once you’ve seen that, you understand the universe with new enlightenment.<\/p>\n
The Bible group behind me speaks of making strawberry jam and the inherent presence of Satan in social media.<\/p>\n
I see a massive hardback version of the King James Bible<\/i>. I pull it from the shelf and find the story of Jonah. I never get tired of it. One wonders where the Nineveh of our time is.<\/p>\n
Silicon Valley for sure.<\/p>\n
I almost forgot to mention that a cigar store is in front part of the shop. A Christian cigar store in a Christian coffee shop. You can buy a cigar and read the Bible<\/i> in the smoking area that is designed a bit like a frontier church. There are even pews.<\/p>\n
(If you found this post enjoyable, thought provoking or enlightening, please consider supporting a writer at work by making a financial contribution to this blog or by purchasing an NSP book.) <\/i><\/p>\n\n I sit in a stuffed chair in a Christian coffee shop. Christian reggae plays. The barista appears as a tired, long-haired angel, if angels wore noserings and clubbed until dawn before their morning shift. Before I leave, I’ll stash some of my secular books in the lending library. I’m sure they’ll be removed forthwith, although […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4070,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[810,807,809,806,652,808],"class_list":["post-4069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","tag-apostle-paul","tag-bible","tag-christian","tag-coffee-shop-novel","tag-coffee-shop-writing","tag-jonah","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4071,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4069\/revisions\/4071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}