This is something that happened one day in the old City of Jerusalem. A rabbi was walking home from the store when he saw a child falling from his bike. The face of the child must have hit a rock as blood profusely flowed from a big gash on his face. The rabbi ran to pick up the child and quickly brought him to the nearby hospital to get stitched. An elderly woman saw the rabbi running and said, ”Don't worry rabbi, God is in control and won't let anything bad happen to that child!” Then she gave a closer look at the face of the child and realized that it was her own grandson. Suddenly it was she who was frantically running and calling for help.
It is so easy to comfort others from a external position. That is why as a chaplain, though I have seen a thing or two in my life, I do not like to say, “I understand” or, “I feel your pain.” We have to stay in the “exterior” in order to bring comfort but as such we cannot truly know what someone really feels. And that is why also I think that first-responders are amazing. Though in the “exterior”, they respond day after day to tragic life-threatening situations with an “insider” sense of urgency. For them, it is personal. I attended the drill on PTSD this month. The instructor told us how first- responders carry with them all the things that they see and hear. These sights and sounds always remain with them and unless they have a way of pouring it out of themselves, it can negatively affect them. These people are often volunteers. They don't have to do it. Many of the calls they respond to are accidents, but many of them are also situations where people's carelessness and unhealthy habits are at fault. In any case, the first-responders respond just the same. As such, also in any case, they voluntarily take upon themselves the consequences of our health issues or unhealthy living in order to rescue us; a burden that will negatively affect their lives if they don’t learn how to put it down. I thought this to be good “food for thought” as we enter the season when we remember the sacrificed Passover Lamb reminiscent of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt. How fitting is the connection with the events that happened in Jerusalem 2000 ago at this time of the year. Indeed, a time when someone, as the true, First-Responder, also voluntarily took upon himself the burdens of our health issues and foolish living. Kudos to our first-responders!
1 Comment
Merry Lu Bowen
3/23/2018 01:33:24 pm
Super article!!!!!
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