By Jim Nichols

“In the unlikely event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the panel above your head. Please be sure to secure your own mask before helping others.”

If you have traveled to a destination (for example, the mountains) where the altitude is 10,000 feet or higher, you have realized that it is difficult to breathe. The air is thinner and thus the amount of oxygen is less and your breathing mechanisms begin to work harder to make up for that deficiency.

Modern airplanes frequently transport us at 32,000 feet or higher. To compensate for the thinner air, passengers are contained in an enclosed cabin in which the air is “pressurized” to be equivalent to an altitude of 8,000 feet; thus, we passengers are protected from the influence of the plane’s actual altitude.

If there were to be a sudden penetration of the body of the plane, the pressures inside and outside attempt to equalize; this is simple physics. The plane’s built-in safety response is to drop oxygen masks down to each passenger seat. Many of us have heard multiple times an announcement similar to that stated above.

Someone encountering this situation for the first time might consider this instruction selfish—to take care of myself before others. We understand, however, the admonition that this action would be the most effective to any aid we might be able to give others. A bit of introspection and preparation allows us to be a helper; this is true spiritually as well as materially.

Different hospitals have different protocols, but a hospital with which I am most familiar has codes used on overhead announcements. One of the common statements directs attention to an upcoming situation in the emergency area. The announcement will typically identify “Trauma Code 1,” “Trauma Code 2,” or “Trauma Code 3.” If you are the patient in any of these cases, every type of code is a “trauma.” There is, however, a difference between an incoming patient who has fallen from a ladder and broken a leg to a patient from a three-car accident with multiple people apparently seriously injured.

One of the purposes of the listing of the number of the code is to call different medical workers to the Emergency Room. Different code numbers call for a different array (depending on the apparent seriousness of the injury) with time values as to when the workers should be in the ER and ready. For all three code numbers, a chaplain is to come.

Typically, the chaplain may not already be in the ER. Hearing the page about a Trauma Code starts the chaplain that direction, considering during the walk what might be encountered. It is similar to putting on your own oxygen mask before helping others. 

One of my favorite chaplain stories tells of advice given by a mentor before entering a patient’s room. The mentor said to the learner, “When someone’s heart stops beating, first take your own pulse.”

Most of our responses are not to such clearly intense situations. We do find ourselves sometimes, however, faced with trying to be God’s people suddenly, either in speech or action. The best we can do is to try to lead an introspective life the rest of the time and be aware of our “triggers” (to use a common term these days) and how we respond to them. 

It takes little observation to conclude that our society is angry and anxious. Many of us live a life of reaction rather than a life of introspection. Author David French notes a “systemic failure of kindness” that leads to the dominance of animosity in the country.

Podcaster Steve Cuss has suggested some questions to ask ourselves. “How do I know when I am anxious?” “Who knows before I know and what are the signs?”

Knowing what triggers me toward anger and anxiety, how can I shift myself to the guidance of the Holy Spirit rather than those self-developed triggers?

Taking care of myself before caring for others is spiritual preparation. This is a temporary activity that renders us capable of helping others. We must continually probe what is mine to carry, what is theirs, and what is God’s.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain