heimlich as a theologian.

so i was working at the Star today, and this 30's-40's-ish man, comes in to get some coffee. as many of you chicago Star-goers know, we have been selling warmed breakfast sandwiches for the past month and a half. we always get waaaaay more than enough breakfast sandwiches in every day, so we sample them all throughout the mornings to get rid of the surplus.

anyway, this particular man was eyeing the breakfast sandwiches, so i tried to suggestively sell to my best ability ("uhhh... would you like to try one of our... artery-clogging, sodium-laden breakfast sandwiches of goodness that are warmed in an oven that is able to thoroughly cook frozen food in a suspiciously rapid amount of time?"). my attempt at a sale was respectfully denied, but i encouraged him to try the lone sample that was sitting next to the pastry case so that in the future, he would have some hard evidence to base a breakfast-sandwich decision on.

i begin to help another customer, when OUT OF NOWHERE this man dashes behind the counter. he motions to me that he is choking, then turns around for me to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him. his face is bright red, turning purple. it took a second to understand what was happening. customers don't just run behind the counter like that, you know?

now, i've never been certified in first aid or CPR. i guess know the ideas of basic life saving techniques, i've seen pictures on laminated posters of how they are to be done, but i've not practiced them or seem them practiced in a very long time. and it's not like you can practice the Heimlich on people. but i tried. i reached around him, grabbed my hands and started trying to shove my fists up under his diaphragm. after three or four tries, nothing was happening, so i called Bobby, one of my male coworkers who is also a believer. he was steaming milk at the bar, i think oblivious to what was happening until i called to him, but he ran to help. he grabbed the man and with great force performed the maneuver, to the point of lifting the man off the ground (is that how it's supposed to be done?). i darted in back to call the paramedics as a backup in case Bobby was unsuccessful, but just as i reached for the phone, i heard the man speak. i ran back out. he was thanking Bobby for saving his life. i was shaking from the adrenaline rush, trying to serve the next customer-- an elderly woman who made a weird remark about how "these sort of things happen"... it was very strange how calm all of the customers in the store were, despite the fact that a man could have died.

after regaining composure, the man actually cleaned up the bits of breakfast sandwich that he had vomited on the floor.

being the responsible shift supervisor, i decided that we needed to fill out an incident report. so i sat down with the customer for about ten minutes and we talked. i was so moved that the Lord was so gracious in sparing his life by having Bobby scheduled when he was, i almost cried in front of the customer. he was such a precious man.

there are so many things i am thankful for about all of this:

1) I am so thankful that the man was very direct about what he needed me to do for him. this sounds dumb, but him running to me and motioning to me what to do kept me from freezing up.

2) I am SO thankful that my shift and Bobby's shift overlapped when it did today. Bobby was the only man in the store... perhaps the only person strong enough to do the job.

3) I am SO thankful the man is still alive and for his response of gratitude toward us. i felt like we were all family after this happened.

in the moments after the customer left the store, i was trying to process what happened, and seek the Lord about it. you see, these things... they mean more than just saving the life of a person, which is amazing in and of itself.

i'm starting to understand that everything is spiritual.

the Lord spoke to me very clearly in the backroom of Starbucks today about what had happened. i mentioned to you yesterday that just in the past couple days He has been piercing my heart with questions and prayer about how the Body of Christ (the Church, the body of believers here on the earth) is supposed to function. after the event today He struck my heart with this:

believers, we need each other.

duh, you say. of course we do. we all need relationship, we need support, we need to worship together, blah blah blah. but that's not really what i mean. i mean, that's part of it. but there is more. a man could have died today if Bobby hadn't been there to do what i could not. i felt the Lord speak to my heart that the matter of needing each other is not the surface "just-so-we-don't-get-lonely", or "so-we-have-someone-to-sit-next-to-on-Sunday-morning" kinds of things, as i think we have thought of it for so long... no, we NEED each other. even those in the church that rub us the wrong way... we NEED them, and it is a matter of spiritual life and death. each of us is anointed with different giftings and abilities-- we each reflect a unique facet of the heart of God, having been made in His image-- so that we may fill in where our brothers and sisters lack. recognizing our dependency on one another to go after the Lord and to do the glorious things which He has called us to is ABSOLUTELY necessary, because the Lord WILL, if He has not yet already, usher us into situations in which our love and cooperation for one another (or lack thereof) will seal the fate of a physical life or soul.

i was so thankful for Bobby today. it didn't matter that my attempts to rescue the man were unsuccessful-- the man is alive! and i believe that is how the Lord would have us look to each other-- we need not be jealous of each other's giftings, but rejoice in each other's strengths to the glory of God. we NEED each other.

the Lord has been hammering this into my heart because (among other things), there are people that I have written off in the Church. people who i think have made poor decisions, either to offend me personally or those who i care about. and if you looked at me you wouldn't think i was angry with them. i didn't even think i was. i've just gotten good at pretending pretty much like they don't exist, or taking anything they have to say on spiritual matters with a grain of salt.

the Lord is applying some corrective pressure on my heart about this: no, Stephie, you NEED them. even the people you don't like, you NEED them. you cannot be great in Me without them.

here is the passage for the subject matter:

"The body is a unit, thought it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body-- whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-- and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,' it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
"The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you!' On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
"Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." (1 Corinthians 12:12-27).

so... i don't know exactly where the Lord is taking me with this, but... there are some dark parts of my heart that He is obviously trying to expose. what can i do but say okay? show me my ugliness, that You might make it pure and beautiful. Jesus, You said, "blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." i want to see You! i will agree with You that my heart is desperately wicked, as Jeremiah said. please, Lord, do what You love to do and transform it.

do what only You can do and bring freedom to my innermost parts. i will let You.