“Amnesia”
In 2006, Joe Bieger, a 59-year-old husband, father, and grandfather, and an assistant high school athletic director, who was in the process of having a new home built, walked out of his house in Dallas one morning with his two dogs—and wasn’t seen again for 25 days.
What happened? He contracted an extremely rare form of amnesia called psychogenic fugue, and literally forgot who he was. For 25 days he wandered the streets of Dallas not knowing his name, where he lived, what he did for a living. He was stopped and questioned by police looking for a robbery suspect. He woke up cold on a playground one morning and under a construction trailer another time. He crossed busy streets and interstate highways.
Finally, the construction foreman who had worked on the new home Bieger was building saw him, thought he might recognize him, and called out, “Joe, Joe!” Then the construction foreman asked him if he knew his own name, and the man said it must be Joe. As the two talked, Joe Bieger’s memory started to come back to him. Bieger said, “Over some period of time I began to realize who I was.” And he was reunited with his family and old life. He’d worn holes in his shoes, lost 25 lbs., and had a full white beard over his normally clean-shaven face. He said God had brought him back for a reason—“to work with these students.”
When he forgot who he was, Joe Bieger wandered aimlessly. Likewise, when we forget who we are in Christ—how God sees us—we will lose our way in this life.
~Reference: “Amnesia victim tells of wanderings,” The Arizona Republic (1/27/07)~
Psalm 89:7-17 – God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, And to be held in reverence by all those around Him. O LORD God of hosts, Who is mighty like You, O LORD? Your faithfulness also surrounds You. You rule the raging of the sea; When its waves rise, You still them. You have broken Rahab in pieces, as one who is slain; You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm. The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours; The world and all its fullness, You have founded them. The north and the south, You have created them; Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name. You have a mighty arm; Strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound! They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance. In Your name they rejoice all day long, And in Your righteousness they are exalted. For You are the glory of their strength, And in Your favor our horn is exalted.