Under The Table
The legs of the table and chairs were his cage. He hands were protectively over his head as he stared out through lifeless, gray eyes. “The boy is fifteen,” a staff member told the therapist as they watched him from behind a one way mirror. “He’s been with us four years without ever speaking a word.” The child therapist entered the room and sat down. “Kevin, my name is Torey. I help people who have a hard time talking.” No response. Several attempts to make contact were again met with silence. Then the boy began to throw things in a fit of rage. Toys, wooden blocks, pencils and pens. Torey retreated for safety as four staff members rushed in to subdue him.
From his case file, the therapist learned that Kevin had witnessed his sister’s death at the hands of his alcoholic father. The boy was diagnosed was elective mutism, a psychological condition where a child is functionally mute because of some traumatic event in their past. The next morning, the therapist chose a different room. Once the boy was ushered in, he froze as the door was locked behind him. He then dived past the therapist and under the table. Torey watched as Kevin arranged the chairs into his cage, all the time wondering how to help this desperate boy. On a whim, she picked up a book a began to read aloud. The longer she read the calmer Kevin became. The next day, she picked up the book again. Only this time, Torey moved a chair and crawled under the table too. Kevin smiled and moved over to make room. Torey then opened the book and began to read. As time progressed, she could feel that the boy was now trusting her as they continued their therapy sessions under the table.
One day she announced, “I want you to read to me.” Kevin’s eyes grew wide as sweat began to roll down his face but he was going to try. He bent over the book, his hands shaking as his mouth opened and closed with no sound. The veins of his neck stood out and his face was drenched in sweat. Thirty minutes passed and Kevin finally gave up. “Don’t worry about it,” said Torey. “We’ll try it again tomorrow.” The boy looked up with hopelessness, as tears rolled down his cheeks. The next morning, as Torey approached the therapy room, she heard the most awful sound. “Haaa, haaa, haaa” It sounded like an old, raspy engine coughing it’s way to life. Yes, it was Kevin! When the therapist entered the room, Kevin slid over and made room under the table, then continued those awful sounds. His body trembled as sweat poured down his face. “That’s hard work, isn’t it?” said Torey. The boy looked at her. “Haaa, haa, I…..I didn’t…..haa…I didn’t think…I could ever talk again……Whew!” With that, he collapsed on the floor with exhaustion.
Kevin’s story is much like those around us every day. While most of our friends or co-workers do not barricade themselves under a table, they all have their own ways of “protecting” themselves. This might be through a plastic smile, explosive anger, or just plain, cold silence. In their attempt to protect themselves from “the enemy’ they have lost their ability to open up to their closest friends.
I guess the most amazing old testament character who reached out to the hurting was David. While running for his life, he accepts the responsibility of over 600 men who were in troubles of their own. Now he is looking at the smoldering ruins of his hometown Ziglag, as him own men speak of stoning him. But David looked beyond the anger in their eyes and saw hurting men. They had lost their families too. As the old saying goes, hurting people can hurt you. The child therapist in our opening story realized that there was a history of trauma behind the anger and rage from this scared, frail boy under the table. Instead of focusing on the anger, she, like David chose to focus on the hurts inside the boy.
David was at a very critical point in his life. After all the years of running from Saul, his life is now being threatened by friends. It is here that David does three things that serve as an example for us all.
- David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. (1 Samuel 30:6)
When you are helping the hurting, there are times when you can’t depend on anyone else but yourself and God for your encouragement. We depend too much on everyone, the pastor, the Sunday School teacher, the spouse to keep us encouraged. But friend, God wants to teach us how to depend on Him! - David enquired at the Lord. (1 Samuel 30:8)
I’ve fallen short of this one so many times. As a man who likes to think everything through, up, down and sideways, I’m guilty of “praying” when what I’m really doing is trying to work it out in my own mind, then see what God thinks about it. If we really believe that we serve a living God, then why can’t we just ask Him, and be willing to wait for His answer? - David went. (1 Samuel 30:9)
Once we’ve received our instructions from God, it’s not time to flounder around. It’s time to obey! In my teenage years, I spent a few hours taking flight training from a man in Jenks, Oklahoma. The airport was next door to Tulsa International. And let me tell you, when those air traffic controllers told you to do something, they would get very angry if you floundered at their directions. Why? Because my airplane could become a hazard to other aircraft if I didn’t respond immediately. If you feel a burden to help someone and God has spoken that it’s time to help, please don’t wait until that soul crash lands in hell.
We spend too much time waiting on the hurting individuals to come out of their shell before making our move. But like the therapist in our story, don’t you think it’s time to pull back a chair and climb under the table where they are? I can’t promise you an easy task but I can promise you a smile on God’s face. And maybe one day, that hurting individual will utter the words like the boy in our story: “I didn’t think I could ever talk again…..Whew!”
God bless you all