I was an intern at Bethesda Naval Hospital when I was required to take a Combat Casualty Care Course, also called C-4. I traveled to San Antonio, Texas where I spent a week with the Marines in training maneuvers. I then spend 3 days in the Air Force Hospital learning about trauma care. I still remember the day we went with the Marines to “storm the hill.” The enemy was located at the top of a treeless hill. That means we were exposed during the entire assault. I was teamed with another physician. We each had a pack filled with first aid items & an empty litter we carried between us.

It was only a training event, but it was amazingly real. Suddenly we had “injured” Marines all around us! We had to assess whether they needed a simple patch and keep fighting or be placed on the litter and carried off the battlefield. When a Marine needed to be transported to the medical tent located in a safe place, we would take his pack off his back and place it on the litter to be carried to safety with him. We did this more times than I can count. It was a busy day patching Marines up to continue the fight while taking others away from the fight in order to heal.

I find life to be like that. There are times when we are so injured that we need a safe place to heal. I find it amazing that God has always provided for such safe places in a world filled with sin. Israel had “cities of refuge” described in Numbers 35:6. Today,God has given us the Church. In 2012, God has called our church “To Connect” with Him, one person at a time. We are asking ourselves, “Got Connections?” Paul says it like this, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)

In many ways, it’s easier to connect with a fallen warrior on the battlefield to take him to safety than it is in everyday life with the people around me. Have you ever wondered why that is? Perhaps it’s because we confuse the burden a person is under with the load that same person must carry for herself. Paul tells us it is our Christian duty to carry the burden of our brother, to take him to safety so that he can carry his own load. The load we each have is our own day pack we must carry. As a physician on the battlefield, I never carried a Marine’s load. We each have a load that no one else can carry. We each have to make decisions for ourselves. We can’t blame anyone else for the decisions we make. But we also have burdens. And on the battlefield of life, we are each responsible to be a safe person of refuge for those with whom we CONNECT. Perhaps connecting with other people is more about my choice to be a safe person than it is about their choices. 

Got Connections? The connections we make with others reveals the connection we have with God. It is my prayer that in 2012, you may connect with God, one person at a time – to be a friend, a person of refuge, the one who is willing to carry the burdens of others. May we all have wisdom from God to know the difference between the burdens we carry and the load we bear.