During our year of ministry in a rural community, one of the families we got to know quite well kept a dog tied up in their yard. The dog was there purely for security reasons (he wasn't named Tiger for nothing!) and lived his entire life on the end of a 10m rope with minimal contact with the family.
We had no pets and being starved for canine friendship, I would go and talk to him on our weekly visits to the home. Initially Tiger was incredibly aggressive and I would stand well out of reach as he snarled and snapped at me, and just speak softly. Over time he softened visibly, until the memorable day when he let me scratch his head. From that point on, every time we came to the house, Tiger would strain excitedly at his lead and drool spectacularly as I rubbbed his head. He loved the contact and seemed a different dog altogether to me.
This has been a really helpful picture for me to bear in mind when dealing with difficult people. Some people snarl and snap through no fault of their own - they have been on the end of a chain all their lives and have not been spoken to softly. Tiger's transformation is also a picture of the dramatic change that can take place in the lives of wounded people when we are willing to risk loving someone who has been written off.
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