Come In

Imagine you are walking through a strange neighborhood when a storm begins to rage. You look for a safe place, but you don’t know which, if any, of the homeowners will take you in and which will pull out a shotgun and run you off. Your life to this point has taught you to believe that all homeowners are greedy, selfish, thoughtless louts whose only purpose in life is to exploit you, and nothing you have seen thus far has disabused you of that notion.

So where do you find shelter?

The short answer is that you don’t. You don’t knock on doors. You don’t ask for help. You don’t make yourself vulnerable. Instead, wrapping your fear around you like a cloak, you endure the storm and curse the people who are safe and warm in their homes. You don’t find shelter until someone from inside one of those homes cracks their door, extends a hand, and invites you to come in. Even then, your first instinct is to strike out at that hand and run away.

What else can you do?