On March 11, 2005, Kevin Berthia went to the Golden Gate Bridge. Overwhelmed by depression and medical bills for his premature daughter, he climbed over the rail. California Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Briggs walked up and started talking. Berthia later said it was the compassion in Briggs’ voice that let him lower his guard. They talked for 92 minutes about everything he was facing. Briggs helped him see that his daughter, whose first birthday was the next month, needed him. Berthia climbed back over. Years later the two met again, and Berthia said the friendship works because Briggs never judged him. Sometimes the most powerful thing we can offer is a patient ear and a voice full of compassion.
At 12:35 am on April 15, 1912, the wireless operator and first officer of the Carpathia woke Captain Arthur Rostron with news that the Titanic had struck ice and was sinking. Rostron turned his ship around at once. The Titanic was 58 miles away. He called out extra stokers to make all possible speed, while the crew got doctors, blankets, and hot coffee ready. Through the dark they steamed past icebergs, dodging them as they went. The Carpathia reached the first lifeboat at 4:10 am, about three and a half hours after the call. They were too late for many, but more than 700 people were saved because one captain ran toward danger instead of away.
On January 13, 1982, an Air Florida jet struck a Washington bridge and plunged into the ice-covered Potomac River. A rescue helicopter dropped a line to the few survivors clinging to the wreckage in the freezing water. One man kept catching it and handing it to others he thought were worse off than himself. Five people were saved. When the helicopter came back for him, he was gone. For a long time no one knew his name. A Coast Guard investigation later identified him as Arland D. Williams Jr., and President Reagan awarded him the Gold Lifesaving Medal. He did not have to pass the line. He chose to, again and again.
Humpback whales live in every ocean and make one of the longest migrations of any mammal. Some swim 5,000 miles between warm breeding waters and cold feeding grounds. By the time commercial whaling was finally stopped, humpback populations had been crushed, most cut by more than 95 percent. In 1985 an international moratorium on commercial whaling took full effect, and according to NOAA it played a major role in their recovery. Today the species is increasing through much of its range, though four of its 14 population segments are still listed as endangered. The hunting stopped, and life came back. When God calls us to lay down something that harms others, healing often follows faster than we expect.
In the summer of 1873, cholera swept through Nashville. Close to 1,000 people died, roughly one in every 25 residents. Many who could afford it fled the city. David Lipscomb lived ten miles out in the country, but he stayed in Nashville to help the sick. He drove Catholic sisters to their patients in his buggy and cared for the sick and dying himself, including African Americans. Young men from the church of Christ worked especially in the neglected villages of freed slaves, bringing medicine and food. Afterward Lipscomb wrote that faith which does not make us willing to brave death for suffering people is little more than empty profession. Different churches and races served side by side. Mercy crosses every line we draw.
