My first trip to Austria did not go well and was memorable especially because of an encounter with a tiny dog.
I didn’t get much sleep on the flight over the Atlantic, and after arriving at Parndorf had a full day of meetings and a dinner event with colleagues. Not speaking any German, and having no prior European travel experience, I felt out of place and disoriented the whole time. I slept poorly in the hotel in Neusiedl am See, awoke early with a pounding headache and decided to take a walk to clear my head before breakfast.
It was a beautiful morning and I enjoyed getting out on the walking path that led away from the hotel. My headache was beginning to subside as I strode along. I came up behind two older ladies who were chatting away in German. One woman had a little yipper dog in a blue and white sweater on a leash. As I passed them I said “Guten Morgan” and nodded.
That’s when the dog saw me. I had eye contact for only a split second before he raced over and grabbed my pants leg in his teeth, growling and shaking his head back and forth. Stunned, surprised, I just stopped. I looked up at the woman, who was making no effort to yank on the leash or pull the dog away. She said in perfect English, without a trace of apology, “He doesn’t like Americans.”
The dog released my pants leg and trotted away without a backwards glance. The two woman continued on, leaving me standing there, dumbfounded.
My only thought: “I’m so out of place here that even the dog knows I’m an American!”
Here’s my question for us to ponder: Do we live such lives that everyone around us (even the neighbor’s dog) knows that we’re a Christian?
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