Life Changing

Okay, this is a testimonial, so, if that bores you, move on. The first episode of Touched By An Angel I saw was "There But For The Grace of God", which aired in February of 1995. The story is about A) A homeless man (Gregory Harrison) who loses everything, B) A homeless veteran afraid to go home, and C) A homeless woman, afraid to go home after the JFK assassination.

I had just started therapy after a childhood of horrific abuse, followed by nine years in Special Forces and five years on Gang Task Force. I had become quite hard, and I feared-sociopathic. This episode changed everything. For the first time in twenty years, I felt for another person. When Monica has her humility moment, and she washes the man's feet, curing him of his ilnesses, I cried-for the first time in decades. The answer was there-care for another person as you do for yourself.

I talked to my therapist the next morning and arranged for counseling, to go along with the therapy. It wasn't an easy journey, but this episode touched me, as nothing had since I was a child. Besides the mental help, I became heavily involved in church ministries and I even briefly worked in homeless ministries. I still do, in a way, contributing food, but my energies are in different ministries.

This TV show changed me forever.

I should also add that the day after this episode aired, CBS let loose a blurb that they were going to cancel the show. I immediately took action and wrote the President of CBS (the first time I had done that for a TV show) and without losing my temper or making threats, I pointed out that the show was doing ministry work and CBS would be doing itself a giant disservice by cancelling this wonderful TV show. Two days later, in church, I ran into a person organizing a letter writing campaign for the show. I explained that I already had sent my letter. The show was saved and I know others had their lives made better by this show.

Juat my two cents.