12.29.05
Thank you… whoever you are…
by Patrick Mead
I was nineteen years old and sick. They admitted me to hospital where I was poked and prodded for a few days. I was thousands of miles from home (and when you’re Scottish, Alabama is SO not home!) and had no family to even call or check on me during that time. When I finally got out I wasn’t much better but that isn’t what I want to talk about…
The problem was the bill. It was a few thousand dollars and I had no insurance and about a hundred dollars a week income. That had to feed me, pay for school, and take care of a car payment ($97.63 a month. I remember it well). The calls demanding payment got more and more aggressive. Things looked bad. I finally went in to the business office of the hospital, hat in hand, hoping to get a payment plan I could live with.
But… when I tried to hand them a small check as a start on paying my balance they informed me that the account had been paid. In full. I was stunned and certain that they made a mistake. A lot of checking and double checking later — it wasn’t a mistake. Someone paid. To this day I don’t know who. They wouldn’t or couldn’t tell me.
It wasn’t a friend. I had none. It wasn’t a church brother or sister. I wasn’t the kind of person people from a church would run to help. But whoever it was — thanks.
I know a ton of people pray for me, by name, daily. I don’t know who you are or why you have been so faithful in prayer. Thank you.
I could go on, but it isn’t about me. It’s about those people who go about doing good and never appearing on radar long enough to get credit. It’s about people taking the role of prayer warriors, good Samaritans, invisible angels… all for the love of God, all for the sake of doing good and nothing more.
Thank you.