Unresponsive

Having worked as a hospital social worker for several years, I have frequently been called to the emergency room when trauma patients arrived. Usually they arrived in critical condition, at death's door and/or in need of some life saving procedure. I carried communication regarding the patient's status to family members and offered comfort and compassion to the family. Occasionally, I was in the trauma room watching doctors utilize every piece of equipment available. I saw them send staff running for other, more specialized equipment. I overheard them make frantic phone calls, relying on the expertise of specialists at other hospitals. I watched as they injected medication, administered CPR, and intubated patients. They did all these things to elicit a positive response from the patient. They did these things to save that patient's life. When the patient remained unresponsive in spite of all their efforts, in spite of the cutting edge equipment, advanced medical procedures and the wisdom of experts, the physicians, sadly, with regret and resignation, pronounced the patient dead. With no response evidenced, the doctors had no choice but to let the patient go and refocus their efforts on saving the life of another patient.
We also have a great Physician. He was sent to earth to save our lives. Sin had placed us at death's door. God made us part of His body and as such, gave us access to His Word and therein, all the knowledge needed to save our lives. We have moving sermons, uplifting songs, and heartfelt prayers. We have the combined efforts of our elders, deacons, teachers and preachers, as well as those of our church family. We have the wisdom of the mature Christians and the prayers of those concerned for our salvation. And we have the Holy Spirit, living within us, guiding and comforting us. All are a part of this life saving mission. All are using full efforts to elicit a response from us---the response that says, I don't want to die.
I have often wondered how long God continues to work on unresponsive people before He pronounces us dead and the attention is refocused on saving the life of another dying Christian.
Just a thought!!!!

Neva