The Neo-Natal Unit at McDonald's

I spent the last 5 hours at McDonald's. And it has been some of the best hours I have spent in weeks. Let me tell you why.
I have tinnitus in my left ear. For the uninitiated, tinnitus is a condition where you have a ringing in your ear that persists. Sometimes louder, sometimes so soft as to be unnoticed - but it is always there. For that reason, absolute quiet can sometimes be most distracting for me. Going to the Library works much of the time. Being where there is "ambient" noise (background noise) works very well for me. Today, my ear was going pretty good when I got to McDonald's to eat lunch. The "musac" playing was soft and soothing, the noise from the serving area was not overwhelming and the eating area very small and not crowded (even the ordering area was outside). All in all, good conditions for me. I started reading one of my textbooks and, 5 hours later, I got up and came home.
The textbook is a history of preaching. It may not seem like a page turner to most of you but it read better than a Robert Ludlum mystery to me. I learned more today about the history of the Church of God Movement and the way in which both the Church of God and me as a preacher, function than at any point in my life. It was revelatory. I feel like I am on a high. Learning things that I should know but have never discovered. It's like being on an archaeological dig and finding buried treasures from centuries ago. I have been in a living museum of history and I have found things that others may know but I have never understood. It has been exciting. McDonald's hold a higher spot on my places of importance than it ever has before!
To me, that is why learning fascinates me. It is the "aha" moment when discovery overwhelms you and you see things around you in a new and different light. It's like experience the drama of conversion all over again. You enter into a book thinking one thing and being sure of other things and by the time you get up from the "altar" of reading, you are a new creature and the old has passed away. "Behold all things become new!"
My daughter-in-law, Maria, has just gotten a new position within her hospital. She is moving from the ICU to the Neo-natal unit. She is excited because she is moving from a place where sick people come in and either die from the seriousness of their problems or recover enough to go out into a regular room for full recovery. Either way, she sees little of their lives and little of the satisfaction that comes from full recovery. Now she goes to care for infants. Granted, some may be so serious that the end results will be hard to take. On the other hand, she gets to see hope, healing, full recovery, and families reunited to go home and share in the joy of being together as one. She feels renewed by the change. I guess that's what McDonald's was to me today. It was a Neo-natal unit of discovery and birth. I was renewed and changed by what I read.
Everyone should have times of refreshment and healing. Someone once said that being being in a rut and being in the grave is that, in a rut, the ends are knocked out. Been in a rut lately? Not had any "aha" moments? Find a book, open the Bible, see a movie that challenges your thinking, join a discussion group, go to a real bible study, find an exciting place to worship, have a season of uninterrupted prayer - do something that gets you out of the rut and, well, over to the Neo-natal unit at McDonald's. It's a trip worth making.