SENTINEL WATCH July 8, 2002 Issue

Walking through the fear

By Lois Rae Carlson Contributing Editor

About 25 years ago, I was coming home from a long workday, late at night. As I walked from the bus stop to my apartment, a bunch of teenage boys jumped me from behind, kicking and beating me. With as much strength as I could muster I said, "You don't want to do this!" After swearing at me, they agreed they just wanted my purse. I gave it to them to stop the attack.

Lying on the sidewalk that night, unable to move, I could see how this situation was a gross mockery of all the times I had prayed for the progress of my neighborhood, which was in a state of transition. My only and constant prayer at that moment was to thank God for being with me.

After about half an hour, I was able to slowly roll over, and instead of the expected dark of that block without streetlights, I was engulfed in the beauty of a night sky. Because it was so rare to even see the sky in a city of orange mercury lights, I was surprised by the clarity of the constellations. I could feel God's blessing telling me that just as the order of the planets and stars had not been interrupted, this incident could not turn my life upside down. My relationship to God had not been disturbed. Not long afterward, a man came along to help carry me to my apartment, and a friend came to care for me.