In A Pinch

Thursday was spent waiting for electricians to show up, watching them repair an underground wire, then recuperating afterwards.

That was my whole day.

I didn’t intend to post a journal entry this morning because yesterday was nothing to write home about…. But…

Something our instructor said the other night about extracting victims of a disaster has been dwelling in my mind. Talking about how to extricate a person trapped in the ruble of a collapsed building, he said that sometimes the best thing to do is leave them trapped so long as them are not in immediate danger of death.

Of course if the building is burning that’s another story.

But usually after the initial collapse, a pile of rubble is relatively stable—unless you start moving things. A person trapped in a void has a good chance of surviving for a long time so the best thing for an amateur rescuer to do is pass them water and leave them be until professionals with heavy equipment such as air bags arrive on the scene.

He told about a rescue he’d been in on when a tree trimmer got pinched by a partially cut limb high in the air. Rescue arrived and went up to the guy in a bucket truck. They started an IV, strapped him in a harness, and all that before removing the heavy oak limb which was pinching his innards.

The man was in pain and talking to the firemen and even telling jokes… but when the limb was lifted off of him, the pressure which it exerted was removed, and the internal organs which had been pinched together by the limb ruptured.

He was dead before he reached the ground.

And these were professional rescuers, trained paramedics with all the latest equipment working to save him.

Sometimes pressure holds us together.

Being in a pinch is what keeps us alive.

I transplanted this idea to my own spiritual life.

When I’m in a pinch. When I feel trapped, I try to wiggle out. I feel the pressure and try to escape. I’ll do anything to get out from under. I’ll want to kick rubble aside, shove branches off me, regain my freedom.

It’s not that my building is on fire. It’s just that I’m uncomfortable with the situation and want to change things immediately.

What says the Scripture?

“Be still and know that I am God… They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength… The Lord is my Shepherd… Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden…My peace I give unto you…”

Nothing about a frantic scramble.

Wait upon the Lord—For me, that’s harder to do than levering and cribbing a two ton slap of concrete rebar.

The more I learn in the rescue classes, the more inadequate I feel about rescuing anybody.

The longer I live as a Christian, the more I see the truth of the Scripture, “By .grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast”.