The other day I heard about a roomful of doctors eating together. One doctor gets up from the table, leaves the room, and, in minutes, is dead. A morsel of food had lodged in his windpipe, and he choked to death.
The tragedy of this incident is heightened by the fact that probably any one of those doctors could have performed the Heimlich Maneuver or, if need be, a tracheotomy to restore his breathing. But they didn't know anything was wrong - he didn't tell them. He just got up and died.
There's a lesson here somewhere for those of us in the church. A member has a problem in his life: with his marriage or his children, or a personal problem with money, or alcohol, or grief, or loneliness, or depression, or whatever. He feels embarrassed about the situation, so he doesn't tell his brothers and sisters in Christ that he is struggling. Instead he withdraws himself or puts on a brave front and struggles on alone. Sometimes, he is crushed beneath the load, and on one knew it until it was too late.
But the scriptures say: "Bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:1) That's one big reason why Christ in His wisdom placed us together in His church - to bear burdens, and to have our burdens borne. Of course, many problems can't be solved as quickly as that of a choking victim, but most problems become more bearable when shared with our brethren.
Have you been keeping a problem to yourself that is about to get you down? Why not share it with at least one of your fellow-Christians? Don't let pride keep you from saying, "I need help." We all do.
Source:
The Challenger, the weekly bulletin of the Church of Christ, Carbondale, IL [date unknown].
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