Give me eyes to see, give me ears to understand! A feeling that never deceives me, and a mouth that never lies! Give me hands that gladly give, and the wisdom to live by it...

...There they were again! Those good-for-nothing, lazy parasites who drifted through life without doing any decent work to earn their own living!

Mr. Lindemann wrinkled his nose in disgust as he inhaled the pungent smell of homelessness. In anger, he tightened his subtly black-and-white striped tie around his neck until he could hardly breathe. "Just get away from here," he thought with revulsion as an unkempt bearded man in tattered clothes reached for his expensive suit and begged him with tears in his empty eyes for a few cents, while waving an empty tin can in his calloused hand.

But Mr. Lindemann wasted no time dealing with such, in his eyes, unworthy riffraff. He was urgently expected at his workplace in the city's finest district. His heart was pounding as he just barely made it to work on time. His boss had called everyone together for a round-table meeting because there was supposedly something very important to discuss concerning the company's future.

Mr. Lindemann clicked his tongue in excited anticipation, secretly hoping that today he would finally receive the promotion to deputy manager he had dreamed of for so long. He wanted to reach the very top of the executive floor because he loved exercising power over people who were humbly subordinate to him. And, of course, the additional income that came with such an important promotion was certainly nothing to be dismissed. "Money makes the world go round," he thought smugly as he confidently took his seat at the conference table directly opposite his boss, his eyes gleaming with greed. The remaining seats were occupied by a few colleagues whom he barely knew by sight. To be honest, he had no particular interest in them. Why should he? After all, this was about HIM—and who could possibly be more important than himself?

The boss looked seriously around the room as he opened the meeting and read out the financial statements from the previous year. Mr. Lindemann could hardly believe his ears. He felt as though he had ended up in the wrong film. Had he really heard correctly? Was this meeting not about his long-awaited promotion, but instead about his dismissal? His ears began to ring as though a heavy freight train were thundering through them. Everything felt like a terrible nightmare from which he expected to wake up at any moment.

Later, he could remember only fragments of the rest of his working day. He honestly had no idea how he had made it home. One reason was that immediately after work—completely out of character—he went to the nearest supermarket and bought several small bottles of liquor. Somehow, he had to numb the pain inside him. As expected, the alcohol did not fail to take effect, while both his blood alcohol level and his sense of shame steadily increased. How could he possibly explain his difficult situation to his wife and his seven-year-old son?

His wife accepted his redundancy better than he had expected, although she was anything but pleased about the smell of alcohol on his breath. During the following months, Mr. Lindemann did everything within his power to find another job of equal standing. Unfortunately, all his determined efforts were in vain. To console himself after each unsuccessful attempt, he reached for the bottle more and more often. The alcohol reliably numbed his senses and emotional pain for a short while, only to plunge him ever deeper into a black hole from which there seemed to be no lasting escape. By then, his wife had resigned herself to the situation, seeing their marriage seriously endangered by her husband's growing alcoholism. Their son Timo also withdrew more and more from his father. He feared his father's deep dissatisfaction and increasingly frequent outbursts of anger. Finally, Mrs. Lindemann pulled the emergency brake and, with a heavy heart, filed for divorce. She had become far too concerned about the well-being of her only son to endure her husband's unbearable and hopeless condition for even one more day.

And so what had to happen finally happened. Mrs. Lindemann was awarded sole custody of Timo, while Mr. Lindemann, slurring his words and carrying only a single small suitcase containing his few belongings, left the family home. Now he had truly lost everything in life: first his well-paid job, then his kind-hearted wife, whose strength had also reached its limits, and finally his beloved son, of whom he had always been so proud. Not to mention the house they had built together. Only the bottle remained in his hand, from which he immediately took another long drink.

Wearing his old worn-out tracksuit trousers, now full of holes from life on the streets, he wandered around the railway station with drooping shoulders and a body wasted by hunger, begging travellers for spare change to buy the alcohol he desperately craved. Almost a year had passed since his divorce, and with every day his physical and emotional condition deteriorated a little further. He had become only a shadow of his former self. He had grown accustomed to the contemptuous looks of passers-by, and even their scornful words no longer stirred any feelings within him. He habitually dulled his hunger with even more liquor, just as he did on this bitterly cold winter night.

The weather forecast had predicted severe overnight frost, and the thermometer showed -18°C. While most of the city's residents made themselves comfortable in the warmth of their homes, Mr. Lindemann took another deep swig from his bottle before lying down outside the station to sleep. Beneath him was only a thin layer of discarded cardboard, while an old worn winter jacket—given to him only a few days earlier by a compassionate stranger—served as his blanket. But that night the bitter cold, combined with the deceptively warming alcohol, exacted its price. Mr. Lindemann's vital bodily functions gradually failed.

Fortunately, at that very hour, a street worker was making his nightly rounds to check on the homeless during the freezing winter night. The social worker immediately recognised the life-threatening condition of the helpless man lying there and called the emergency services.

By then, Mr. Lindemann had fallen into a deep coma and was desperately fighting for his life. While the paramedics worked tirelessly to stabilise him, Mr. Lindemann suddenly found himself outside his own pitiful body. From a bird's-eye view, he watched the bizarre scene unfold in every detail. He felt deep compassion for the neglected man lying on the ground. It took him quite some time to realise that the man was actually himself.

Then his attention was drawn to a pulsating warm light, radiating a masculine presence completely unknown to him until then, which seemed to approach him ever more quickly from one corner of the station. He was overwhelmed by the profound love emanating from this light. Suddenly, the perspective changed, and as though on a gigantic screen, his entire life was replayed before him in reverse within mere seconds—from the pitiful condition of his body back to his birth forty-two years earlier. Every single deed, whether good or bad, together with its effects on other people, was shown to him in this personal life review. Deeply ashamed before the intensely living light, he realised what a terribly superficial person he had been.

Humbly lowering his head, Mr. Lindemann said, "Lord, please take me by the hand and let me go with You, so that I may finally leave my bleak existence on earth behind." A gentle yet firm male voice answered: "Oh no, my dear friend. Your true life is only just beginning. In the future, remember that everything you send out into the world will one day return to you. Look upon every living being with loving eyes, and listen attentively to your fellow human beings. Listen deeply to your heart whenever it speaks to you, for it does so every second of your earthly life. And never allow it to fall silent, because it speaks the language of love. Never hold your nose higher than it can fall, and never look down on others with arrogance, for the fall from great heights can be very painful. Remember your roots and always be aware of your own worth, regardless of your status or your income here on earth. My love for you and for every living being is ever-present and unconditional. Now I must leave you, but I trust that you have learned your lesson and will make good use of your second chance. One day, far in the future, we shall meet again."

Suddenly Mr. Lindemann's body jolted, and he awoke in the intensive care unit of a hospital. He was connected to countless machines, and beeping sounds surrounded him. The nurse on duty rushed over in excitement, as she had almost given up hope for him. Still weak and in pain, Mr. Lindemann looked gratefully into the nurse's kind eyes. A tear rolled down his cheek as he saw how selflessly she cared for his well-being. Deep inside, he knew he would make it. He had been given his life back. Sighing with gratitude and contentment, he sank back into his pillow and drifted off to sleep again while his body desperately needed the rest to recover.

After a few days in intensive care, he was transferred to a regular ward. News of his remarkably rapid recovery spread through the hospital like wildfire. After leaving the hospital, he voluntarily entered a rehabilitation programme to wage a final battle against the demon of alcohol addiction. Thanks to his strong determination, the treatment was successful. Once again, he stood firmly on his own two feet, mentally stronger than ever. Little by little, through genuine fatherly love, he honestly regained shared custody of his son and, in doing so, also regained the affection and respect of his beloved wife, whom, in hindsight, he had never truly lost.

Mr. Lindemann retrained as a social worker in order to help unfortunate people like the one he himself had once been. At last, he had achieved everything he had ever truly dreamed of in life. From that day forward, his senses never failed him again.