Walk With Me

I'm With You

There was once a woman who was so violent and been so for many years.  Her psychosis was so severe that the doctors in this mental hospital gave up treating her. After many years, she grew old in that mental institution.

Everyone gave up on her.

Everyone, that is, except one person: the janitor.

For some reason, he had taken pity on the old woman and wanted to help her.

But he didn’t know how.

By that time, she had become catatonic. The whole day, she’d just stare at the wall and say nothing. She had locked herself in her own confused world. But the janitor decided to do what he could. So after mopping floors and wiping windows for eight hours, this kind man would enter her room carrying a chair with him, sat beside her, and stared at the wall with her.

He did this for 30 minutes everyday-30 minutes of total silence. One afternoon, after performing this ritual of love for six straight months, he entered her room again carrying his usual chair, sat down beside her and got ready for another quiet 30 minutes. It was not to be so. That afternoon, for the first time in years, the old woman talked. The next day she talked some more. After a few months, she was released from the hospital- a healed woman.

Perhaps, the story is as the same with us. I believe all of us are like the woman who experienced hurts, pains, and shames and the doctor who gives up. We tend to become like the woman in the story in many aspects of our life maybe because we have experienced much negativity. Thus becoming paralyzed and silenced in our journey. Further, we are like the doctor who gives up. Because sometimes we forget that there is still hope and that we have a mission to fulfill- to help those who are as wounded as us. However, the Janitor changed it all though he may seem to be too needy of himself yet in his simple way, helped the woman to recover from her suffering.

Furthermore, the Janitor in the story is like Jesus who always walks with us in this mystery of life. Well, if we are not yet healed and we have lost hope in our hearts. Jesus is ever confident that we may come to him it maybe not in haste but in a slow and thorough process. Furthermore, He invites us that no help is too simple and no son or daughter of His is not in need of help.