{"id":5674,"date":"2015-10-08T09:50:30","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T14:50:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/?p=5674"},"modified":"2026-02-26T13:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:47:23","slug":"the-frailty-of-my-faith-or-how-losing-my-daughter-in-the-park-gave-me-a-glimpse-of-my-own-hypocrisy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/2015\/10\/08\/the-frailty-of-my-faith-or-how-losing-my-daughter-in-the-park-gave-me-a-glimpse-of-my-own-hypocrisy\/","title":{"rendered":"The frailty of my faith (or, How losing my daughter in the park gave me a glimpse of my own hypocrisy)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I only took my eyes off of her for a few seconds … <\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s so clich\u00e9, but so damn true.<\/p>\n

This summer was an unusually sweltering one in the Pacific Northwest, and our local splash park offered a welcome reprieve from the relentless heat. Facing yet another 90+ degree day in mid-August, I brought my girls there to fill the post-nap\/pre-dinner block of time.\u00a0They were happily rotating among the splash park, playground and sandpit.<\/p>\n

My younger daughter, still beaming from her weeklong reign as the Birthday Girl (\u201cI two! I two!\u201d), was thirsty, so I told my older daughter that I was going to fill up our water bottle. The water fountain is perhaps twenty feet from the splash park. It took me less than a minute to walk to the fountain, position my two-year-old\u2019s fingers so that she could \u201chelp\u201d fill the bottle, and look back up to where I had left my almost four-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u2026 and she was gone.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>
Image courtesy of www.freeimages.com<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I scanned the whole of the splash area, noting the rambunctious \u201cbig kids\u201d manning the frog squirter, the joyful birthday party at a nearby picnic table, the toddler crying in his mother\u2019s arms. This was by no means the first time I\u2019d ever lost sight of my daughter, so I was confident she would emerge from behind another child or a big water toy. But she didn\u2019t. I stopped filling the bottle and scooped up my youngest. It occurred to me that perhaps her sister had decided to run back to the sandbox, and as I made my way there, I considered potential punishments for running off without my permission.<\/p>\n

But she wasn\u2019t in the sandbox \u2026 or at the swings \u2026 or in the bathroom.<\/p>\n

I had now looked everywhere I could imagine her going by herself. Several minutes had passed, and panic was creeping in.<\/p>\n

I ran up to the birthday party and asked if any of them had seen a little girl matching my daughter\u2019s description. Though they hadn\u2019t seen her, they recognized the fear in my eyes and sprang into action, each heading to a different part of the park.<\/p>\n

I stayed close to one of the moms, clutching my two-year-old and sputtering useless details about my oldest daughter\u2019s swimsuit, as if the tiny cupcake design on the front of it would be the deciding factor in locating her. I was starting to go in circles, looking in the same places over and over again; afraid to stray too far from where I\u2019d last seen her in case she was looking for me too.<\/p>\n

I glanced at my watch; I had been searching for too long. At what point do I call the police, if the first hour is so key? Do I dial 911, or is there some kind of hotline?<\/em><\/p>\n

My thoughts were scrambled. My capacity for rational thought was unable to overcome the horrific \u201cwhat-ifs\u201d emerging from the periphery of my mind where I, like all parents, try to banish them. This community park is large and uncontained, encompassing not only the splash park and playground, but sports fields, a walking trail, and several open fields adjacent to parking lots. It would be impossible to lock it down.<\/p>\n

This is also the park where many of the people experiencing homelessness in our community spend their days. To my utter shame these \u201cleast among us,\u201d for whom I claim to have such great compassion, were featured prominently in the horror reel of \u201cwhat-ifs\u201d flashing through my mind. I could feel myself starting to lose it.<\/p>\n

And then we found her.<\/p>\n

A woman from our makeshift search party directed my attention to an anonymous dad waving in a distant field. Beyond him \u2026 my sweet girl; running happily with her arms wide open and her ponytail flying behind her. We were separated by 200 yards and\u2014much further\u2014by the ability to be turned completely upside down by an incapacitating fear of the worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n

She had been missing for a total of 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

I have no idea who (or even how many) helped me search for my daughter that day. By the time I reached her, I could barely choke out \u201cthank you\u201d to the people in front of me, never mind the others who had spread across the park. They are nameless, faceless heroes of mine.<\/p>\n

I had been right, as it turns out, to relegate those insidious and terrifying \u201cwhat-ifs\u201d to the fringes of my consciousness. My daughter went missing, but there was no \u201cstranger danger.\u201d \u00a0The only strangers with whom I interacted were doggedly working to help me find her. This story has no villains: no stalkers, no kidnappers, no opportunistic perverts.<\/p>\n

By all accounts, my faith in humanity should be renewed. I should be a more optimistic mother.<\/p>\n

Except I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n

Ever since that day, I have found myself keeping a tighter grip on my daughters as we walk through crowded areas. I have been looking more suspiciously at almost-certainly decent, help-you-find-your-daughter sorts of people in the park. I have been questioning the presence and motives of anyone who doesn\u2019t fit my image of someone who belongs <\/em>at kids\u2019 events: young, involved, \u201cvanilla\u201d sorts of people \u2026 people like me.<\/p>\n

In those ten minutes, the horrific \u201cwhat-ifs\u201d of parenthood became real to me in a way they had never been before. I began seeing enemies where they didn\u2019t exist. It makes me wonder: What kind of person would I be if they really did?<\/p>\n

The expression \u201cthere but for the grace of God go I\u201d has really been resonating with me in the wake of those excruciating 10 minutes. If even I\u2014with my privileged life and my happy ending\u2014if even I<\/em> have become more mistrustful and judgmental of others as a result of 10 minutes of unrealized \u201cwhat-ifs,\u201d then where but for the grace of God would I be?<\/p>\n

If I had spent my life as an undocumented immigrant, or an unwelcome refugee, or an impoverished person of color, would I see the people around me as my brothers and sisters in Christ \u2026 or would I see them only as potential threats to myself and my children?<\/p>\n

I majored in peace studies, so I can wax philosophical about \u201cunmasking the other\u201d and ubuntu<\/em> and restorative justice until my lips turn blue. But I have never had to do so in the face of pervasive violence, instability, or oppression. Thanks be to God, I do not have to do so in the face of every parent\u2019s worst nightmare.<\/p>\n

But if that weren\u2019t the case? If my worst-case scenarios dwelled not in the fringes of my mind but in my lived experience, would I be capable of the sort of compassion, hospitality, and goodwill that Jesus demands of his followers?<\/p>\n

I seriously doubt it.<\/p>\n

And so I do the only thing I can: I turn once more to Jesus, and say a prayer of gratitude for His grace, which has truly saved a wretch like me.<\/p>\n

Nicole Steele Wooldridge lives in the Seattle area with her husband and two daughters. She hopes that her daughters do as she says, and not as she does \u2026 and that her emotional aversion to the local splash park has waned by the time next summer comes around.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I only took my eyes off of her for a few seconds … It\u2019s so clich\u00e9, but so damn true. This summer was an unusually sweltering one in the Pacific Northwest, and our local splash park offered a welcome reprieve from the relentless heat. Facing yet another 90+ degree day in mid-August, I brought my...","protected":false},"author":51099403,"featured_media":5678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[698755598,115341],"tags":[67470,8239,306095,11845,933570,401,32976,302984,39249,37610,69712,268078,370,8329,3381908,14790,6412583,9460,3120,31023,32168,14992,170753,18478119,857774,18002,4427918,888960,30278,3238914,255,1843,28139869],"series":[698756626],"class_list":["post-5674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-family-life","category-equity-and-justice-equity-and-justice","tag-10-minutes","tag-8239","tag-afraid","tag-compassion","tag-drinking-fountain","tag-faith","tag-fear","tag-gone","tag-happy-ending","tag-heroes","tag-homelessness","tag-hotline","tag-humanity","tag-jesus","tag-least-among-us","tag-missing","tag-nameless-faces","tag-nightmare","tag-panic","tag-parenthood","tag-park","tag-police","tag-pray","tag-privileged-life","tag-search-party","tag-searching","tag-splash-park","tag-stranger-danger","tag-thank-you","tag-there-but-for-the-grace-of-god-go-i","tag-ubuntu","tag-what-if","tag-young-daughters","series-messy-jesus-business"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/lost-1185836.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/customwordpresssites.com\/mjb\/feed\/podcast\/messy-jesus-business","embedCode":"

The frailty of my faith (or, How losing my daughter in the park gave me a glimpse of my own hypocrisy)<\/a><\/blockquote>