To Write Love On Her Arms

I met a patient last night that will stick with me for a long time. It was a young adolescent who came in with an overdose. As I went to introduce myself I was struck by the lost and absent look in her eyes. I had recently heard of an organization called "To Write Love On Her Arms" that is dedicated to helping girls who are into cutting and other harmful behaviors. With that organization on my mind I did a more thorough physical exam than I normally would. I found ice burns on her back and evidence of recent cutting on her wrists. I spent a little time talking with her trying to understand why she took the pills, why she cuts herself and does other self-injurious behavior. She gave me no reason, but made it clear that she is lost and confused and living in a fog.

After ordering some tests and seeing other patients I went back to check on her and had probably the most terrifying experience of medicine so far. Her family was sitting by the bed while she was sleeping. I tried to wake her to get her attention and she wouldn't budge. I began talking louder and shaking her and still nothing. I literally thought she was dead and I was about to try and call a code in front of her family. In reality she was hooked up to monitors and we would have been alerted to any changes in her vital signs, but that didn't occur to me in the heat of the moment. Thankfully she aroused and was ok. Needless to say, I checked up on her often for the rest of the night.

As Don Miller says we're called to hold our hands against the wounds of a broken world, to stop the bleeding.

The story of this organization is very compelling and I plan on continuing to support them financially, through word of mouth, and through referring teens who need help to them. They toured recently with Anberlin and are now touring with Bayside, June, The Sleeping, and A Day to Remember. They will be at the House of Blues in Chicago on Nov 29, Cincinnati on Nov 30, and then Detroit and Cleveland.

Their website says, "We often ask God to show up. We pray prayers of rescue. Perhaps God would ask us to be that rescue, to be His body, to move for things that matter. He is not invisible when we come alive. I might be simple but more and more, I believe God works in love, speaks in love, is revealed in our love. I have seen that this week and honestly, it has been simple: Take a broken girl, treat her like a famous princess, give her the best seats in the house. Buy her coffee and cigarettes for the coming down, books and bathroom things for the days ahead. Tell her something true when all she's known are lies. Tell her God loves her. Tell her about forgiveness, the possibility of freedom, tell her she was made to dance in white dresses. All these things are true.


We are only asked to love, to offer hope to the many hopeless. We don't get to choose all the endings, but we are asked to play the rescuers. We won't solve all mysteries and our hearts will certainly break in such a vulnerable life, but it is the best way. We were made to be lovers bold in broken places, pouring ourselves out again and again until we're called home."