Red Cross Certified

This past Thursday, I along with several of my colleagues renewed our certification for Adult CPR and the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) system. It is amazing to think that such life-saving techniques are relatively simple to learn and are becoming more accessible to people around the world everyday.

Our training was hands-on and took all morning to learn. We learned how to "check, call, care" for emergency situations, how to perform abdominal thrusts for choking victims, "recovery positioning," rescue breathing, CPR, dealing with unconscious choking victims, and administering the AED. In one morning session, we learned keys to saving lives.

We also learned a little legality known as the "Good Samaritan Law" that varies state to state but in general is meant to cover a person who administers life-saving techniques from being sued by a victim or their family after the incident. Another practice we learned is asking permission to perform these techniques on people that are conscious and choking. If no one is around and the victim is a child or unconscious then permission is assumed.

As a result of the session, we are now considered "American Red Cross Certified." The knowledge that we now carry in our minds can mean the difference between life and death. I think all of us hope that we never have to use this knowledge, but in the event that we do, we are certified and ready to save a life anytime and anyplace.

That is a very humbling thought because that means that we are accountable to this knowledge. In previous Red Cross sessions, we have discussed the issue of not doing anything in a life threatening situation even though we knew what to do. Doing nothing in such a situation, although generally not considered a crime, borders on the criminal. How could I in good conscious simply look the other way as a victim chokes to death, asphyxiates, or dies of a heart attack, when I have the knowledge that can save his or her life?

Ironically enough, that is the message of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Others walked by, but one stopped because he cared enough and knew enough to save a man left "half dead" on the side of the road (Luke 10:25-37).

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I come across people who are half-dead on life's road every day. The difference between them and the victim in the parable, is that many of them don't know the seriousness of their situations. If I were to ask many of them if I could administer a soul-saving technique they would brush me aside and ask me "who are you to tell me how to run my life?" But my dilemma is that if I don't do anything they will lose out forever. I can't wait until they fall dead. At that point it's too late. The fact is...they were already spiritually dead long before they breathed their last. I for one, don't care whether they know or care about their situation, I am going to attempt to administer soul-saving knowledge. I am going to be the Good Samaritan even if I am sued by my victim. I am going to love people in need, my neighbor, even if they don't listen to me. I will go and "do likewise" as Jesus said.

And what about those who walk by? Those who know how to save spiritual lives, how to save a person's soul, but do nothing. They are accountable for that knowledge. Lord help me to never pass up an opportunity to save a soul.

What about you? Do you know what it is to live spiritually? I'm not talking about some metaphysical psycho-spiritual experience here. I am talking about a fulfilled life not the so called life full of drugs, alcohol, sexual addiction, fame, and fortune. That stuff will prove to be just as deadly, choking, suffocating and heart stopping as the scenarios one learns about from the Red Cross.

There is a God who is the life-giver. What do you call a life apart from the one who gives it, but death? Thankfully, there is a life saver. His name is Jesus. What do you call a person who doesn't want to be saved, but dead? Jesus wants to breathe new life into you. He wants to rescue you from the suffocation of sin. He wants to fill your heart with His Spirit, not just to keep you alive but so that you can breathe His life into others. This is the message of the red cross of Jesus.

Consider yourself certified. Together we can save a soul. Together we can Follow Christ and Live with Power.

Get training from the American Red Cross.