CPR At It's Finest...

We had an incident a few months back. To explain what i do briefly, i inject patients with radioactivity, take their picture on a camera at rest, then we stress the patient on a treadmill. While they're running at peak exercise I inject them one more time so the doctor can compare rest to stress to determine if there are any changes, or to put it simply clogged arteries. Well, we stress this patient and we finished on the treadmill. We sat him down and we’re talking to him and the next thing we know his head falls back and we look at the monitor and see he is in Ventricular Tachycardia of the worst kind. Which means, not good. , at all!

Something you see in the textbooks that you hope you never see in real life. So we call a code, i ran to get the cardiologist. I get back, the patient is on the floor turning grey-blue at this point. We got the crash cart, and what was running through my mind was this guy is dead! I’m glad the doctor took over b/c All my advanced cardiac life support and CPR training knowledge I was trying to remember in that moment, but when your knee deep in the mud it’s kinda hard to apply something you learned a year ago and never had to use. It was like Grey’s anatomy, Were pushing meds and the doctor looks at me and says grab the paddles so i turn on the defribillator, hand him the paddles everyone clears and he shocks the patient, We look at the screen and see his heart go back into a normal rhythm. EMS Arrives and they take him away.

Looking back, one thing I've realized is that it doesnt matter what you know, or how much you know, IF there’s no application of the knowledge. I’m the Nuclear tech and I’ve had advanced cardiac life support training, CPR etc, but code blue isn’t what i do on a daily basis and If it would have been just me and that patient with no doctor, i can’t guarantee that it would have turned out the same way. He knew exactly what he was doing and more than that, he was able to apply what he knew when it mattered.

In the same way spiritually speaking the bible does nothing to change your life. There’s tons of people who own a bible, who know the bible, who will never change the trajectory of their life. I know it sounds crazy but listen CLOSE TO what I’m saying, ITS NOT THE BIBLE ITSELF, BUT THe APPLICATION OF THE BIBLE that will change your life. You have to know it, but more than that, you have to apply it. Check out what James 1:22 says,

22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Super Bowl Sunday...

I read a headline this past week that said "New Orlean Saints The Ultimate Super Bowl Underdog”. In other words, there the ones favored to lose. That's what that means. This is the first time the Saints have ever made it to the super bowl. In an interview with one of the Saints top defenders this is what he said,

"I think we're a confident team. We know we're the underdog . . . I don't mind them telling us that we can't hang, or we shouldn't be here. "We embrace it. Go ahead and tell us we can't do something."

It doesnt Matter what the headlines say, their game plan isn’t on the headline, they’re not depending on what people are saying about them. Their focus is on the the challenge their about to face.

In comparison, “ Real Faith doesn’t depend on the direction of our culture.” The headlines in your life might be counting you out as the underdog in the situation. The probability of you making it through your season of life as a champion might not be looking so hot. But faith doesn’t look at what’s going on around you, it’s not focused on what you read in the paper, watch on the news and what you might be going through personally. When the situation tells you, you can’t do something, don’t bank on that. Don’t take that to the bank and cash that check, bank on what God says. 2Cor 5:7 says For we walk by faith, not by sight. and Romans 1:17 says “The just shall live by faith.” You gotta have a vertical, focus, from you to God, not a headline focus on everything going on around us.