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Hurt, Scared and All Alone

November 20, 2006

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Dear Friends

On a summer evening in 1969, my sister and I decided to go visit one of our neighbor’s dogs. Thor was a German shepherd that we had known since he was a puppy. He was chained up now because he had attacked and killed some dogs and cats in the neighborhood. Still, we had played with this dog so much, we weren’t scared.

When I approached him that evening, however, he attacked. He knocked me on my back and started biting and scratching my head and shoulders. I kicked to free myself, but there was no chance of escape as the dog was much larger than my 6 year old frame. By God’s grace, the owner, Mr. Lowe, was home. When he heard the commotion, he ran out of his house. Thor stopped when he yelled.

I made my way back across the clover patch to my home covered in blood. My parent’s reaction was to call the ambulance and have me carried to the local hospital for treatment. They wouldn’t let my parent’s back in the ER and therefore one of my most vivid memories in being all alone in this cold, strange place on this hard table. I was hurt, scared and all alone.

It must have been a busy night in the ER because as they were about to release me from the ER, I remember the hospital personnel asking me if I hurt anywhere else. I did, but I didn’t want to talk. Finally I told them that my shoulder hurt. Somehow, they had missed my most severe injury – a deep bite on my shoulder. Circumstances came together in that they were too busy to notice, my parents forbidden to be with me and I was too scared to tell.

The point of all this is that life is often like that. The people around us are too busy to notice what is going on in our lives. Circumstances have prevented us from getting the help we need. We are hurt, scared and feel all alone. In an ideal world, we get the support and care that we need. However, we don’t live in an ideal world. In an ideal world, six year olds don’t get attacked by dogs and people don’t suffer from depression, anxiety, alcoholism and so forth while the world continues on around them. The reality is that there are plenty of mental, moral and physical problems in the world that are not being addressed.

I could have walked out of the hospital that night with an untreated shoulder wound. I was a few moments from doing so. If I had, I might not be here to tell you about it as I ended up with a 105F degree fever that night even with treatment. If left untreated, the infection could have killed me.

If you need help, there are some places you can go to get it. You don’t have to be hurt, scared and all alone. Here are a few places you can turn:

“I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.” (Eze 34:16)

Have a great week,