Be a "First Responder"

Today I read from Mark 1 and came to focus on verses 29-31, "Directly on leaving the meeting place, they came to Simon and Andrew's house, accompanied by James and John. Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed, burning up with fever. They told Jesus. He went to her, took her hand, and raised her up. No sooner had the fever left than she was up fixing dinner for them."

I'm a pretty independent person. My dad taught me how to take care of myself in most situations and to be creative about solutions to problems. I guess it helps to be a strong-willed child/person too. But this passage speaks to me in two ways about responding to Jesus.

When my younger sister, Judy, and I were still in elementary school, my mom would pack a small household and we would accompany my dad to his work for a week "in the mountains". My dad was a logger and he worked up in the California Coastal Range & Klamath National Forest (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yolla_Bolly-Middle_Eel_Wilderness) cleaning up small areas of trees that larger outfits would find unprofitable. He worked for a friend, Bob Stenberg, and did most everything needed to find, fell and remove these few standing trees.

Almost every time we went "up in the mountains" for the week, Bob's family was there also: wife, Perilla; daughter, Linda; and son, Mike. Although there was 8 years difference in age in us kids, we all got along well and, being outdoors, found lots to keep ourselves busy. I was between 10-12 years old during those years and so I guess our moms thought I had enough sense to keep the younger ones from hurting themselves or running off down the mountain. And, for the most part, we were sensible about the lessons we had been taught about being in the wilderness and the wildlife around us.

However, I remember one day we started down the road--which we were to stay on--but became enamored by a dilapidated cabin we could see a ways off the road. So, we struck off following a deer trail toward it. I have always been fascinated with man-made structures in the process of ruin. You can imagine the grandeur and hope their creation began with yet even the demise of that splendor is fascinating. There, against the backdrop of God's creation, the little cabin looked so insignificant and fragile--much like we are in the scope of life. But, we were children and explored until we were satiated with our pretense of living in the cabin in the "woods" and began to think of lunch. Hunger has a great way of making us take stock of what we're doing, doesn't it?

Well, we went to find the deer trail that brought us to this great adventure and I made a horrific discovery.  Those deer trails ran up and down, into each other and branched off each other so that even the deer must have had a map of them. Unfortunately, they all looked the same to me. Now, maybe we would have found our way on our own but, being the young unsophisticates that we were, statistics show that we wouldn't have. We tried a few but ended up even more lost than before. Like I said at the beginning, I'm fiercely independent but I also know when I'm at the end of myself and my resources. So, I turned to the One I knew could help us find our way home--Jesus. We all got on our knees there on the side of an age-old mountain, in the dirt and sticks and pine needles that God had made long before us and simply prayed that He would help us and take us home safely. And do you know what? He did just that!  

I see myself in that moment like Simon's mother-in-law in the passage above. Jesus went to her and took her hand and raised her up. I understood in my heart that Jesus had taken our hands and led us out of a scary and overwhelming place. I'm not sure if the other kids felt that same way (we weren't into debriefing at that age) but we believed He would do what we asked and were not disappointed. Haven't you see that response to a hand held out--from a child, someone who is ill or elderly? Jesus takes the hand and there is an immediate response.

This past year I've been in a place of having hands reach out to me in prayer and support. It hasn't been easy for me to respond willingly; I still want to do it myself. Yet I know that we are "Jesus with skin on" and helping others or letting them help us is part of going to all the world with His love. Being the one to reach out or the one reached out to makes no difference. 

Since September, 2001, the importance of the newly coined phrase "first responder" has become more evident. Most of the time we see that in light of coming to the rescue of someone that is hurt or in danger. And responding in that is way is most certainly what a Christian must do. It brings to mind the old hymn, "Rescue the perishing! Care for the dying!" which can be interpreted both spiritually and physically.

There is, however, another way we must be a "first responder". We must be the one to respond immediately as Jesus reaches out to us. He doesn't reach out to just take His hand back or to passively keep us from being swept away by Life. Jesus reaches out to us with compassion, love and, definitely with purpose. We will never know the fullness of His compassion, love and purpose until we respond to Him. Will it be easy going thereafter? Unfortunately, no; but we don't have to let go of His hand and He has promised to walk by us through it all.

Where do you find yourself? Staying the independent who can to it yourself or learning what it means to be a spiritual "first responder"? I'm learning, probably in a more difficult way than I would have chosen, but nonetheless, learning. Life isn't about me; it's about what Jesus can do through me for others and His Kingdom.

LADYING FOR OCTOBER 10, 1012: "Being a 'first responder' isn't about me doing something for others. It's about me doing something for Jesus so He can do what is needed--for us all."