Our office staff certified in CPR this week. Funny, even though the fire department set up a private class just for us, none of us really wanted to do it. We sweated through the written test, which we ended up passing with flying colors. And we all felt a little silly when we first started doing the practical part of our test. Shaking a dummy and screaming, "Are you okay? Are you okay?" But when the instructor brought out the child dummy and then the infant, the importance of what we were doing sank in. Jennifer said, "It ought to be a law for everyone to know this."

We'll get little cards to put in our wallet, but I said I'd get us a certificate for our office wall, so patients will know we're all six certified in CPR. Of course, then we worried that people would come to our office to keel over. Hopefully not. But it's nice to have a small clue what to do if it happens. The fireman told us that the life most people end up saving with their CPR skills is a loved one's.

One of the things we discussed in class was a defibrillator. We're hoping to get one for our office. It's a machine that when your heart goes into fibrillations (just quivering like crazy out of sync) it delivers a jolt to stop the heart and then on its own, the heart starts pumping in rhythm again. I know a lot of time my life goes into fibrillations and I'm paralyzed by the chaos. I need a jolt to stop my running in circles (See Tracey Bateman's blog entry "To Be Still and Know..." about fifteen minutes well-spent) and then I can start back working in rhythm with God again.

Call your fire department or the American Heart Association and find a CPR class near you. Love for the sake of loving, give for the sake of giving, and serve for the sake of serving. You'll be SO glad you did.

Spend some quiet time with God. Stop the madness and restart your heavenly rhythm. The life you save may be your own.