When most of us are in danger, our minds resort to our carnal or earthly needs. However, it’s clear some respond differently in a moment of terror. For Phillip Todd, it just might have saved his life.
If his name sounds familiar, it’s likely because you heard it in the news recently. Todd, an aide to Republican Senator Rand Paul, was recently stabbed while walking down the street in DC for no apparent reason.
You might have also heard that he was released from the hospital a mere week after being attacked, with signs of a full recovery. And that’s after being stabbed four times and suffering from a skull fracture, bleeding on the brain, and a punctured lung.
Now, clearly, he’s not quite at 100 percent yet. But for a man who was just severely attacked, he’s well beyond where most would have imagined.
Todd and his friend, Christopher Barnard, who was with him when the attack occurred, attribute the “pretty miraculous” recovery, as doctors call it, to God alone.
According to both men’s accounts of the incident, Todd and Barnard were just coming from a church service and on their way to an apartment social event when a man, later identified as Glynn Neal, suddenly lunged at Todd with a knife.
Barnard remembers not feeling like he had the “time to be scared in the moment” and so simply jumped into action. He tackled Neal from behind, finally managing to get him off of Todd. Barnard hurriedly grabbed Todd and told him, “We got to go, we got to go.”
Bleeding profusely, Todd, with Barnard’s help, managed to run down the street until they felt they were out of danger. Barnard helped Todd to the ground and desperately did what he could to try to stop the bleeding. While nearly unconscious, Barnard remembers Todd asking him to “pray for me.”
Barnard said he had no choice but to do as Todd had asked. And so, there on the sidewalk, waiting for medical attention and police to arrive, Barnard held his friend’s bleeding head and prayed.
It might not have been what you and I would have done or have even thought to have done. But as both men agree, it’s likely the only thing that saved his life and resulted in such a tremendous recovery.
It’s a clear sign that prayer should be a little closer to all of us.
