After Cremation, Six Ounces of Metal Found in WWII Vet's Leg

British soldier Ronald Brown came out of World War II with shrapnel embedded in his left leg, the result of stepping on a land mine while serving in France in 1944. He was far from medical aid when the blast happened and had to crawl two miles to receive help.

When he finally was treated, medical personnel decided it was safer to leave the shrapnel in Brown's body than to dig it out.

Brown survived the war, and his family knew that the incident had left him with "a bad knee." His daughter said he told the family he had "a bullet" there, but he never mentioned the fragments. He did ask his grandchildren not to sit on his knee because of the discomfort it caused, but he didn't complain of pain otherwise, and he seldom spoke about the war.

After the war, Brown went on to work as a tax inspector and lived a full life, but when traveling and passing through airports, he always set off scanners at the security checkpoints.

Following his death, when Brown's family gathered to scatter his ashes, they asked the funeral director if the bullet had been found. What they were given, however, was a bag containing a stunning six ounces of metal fragments, including shards, wire, screws and other pieces (see a photo here).

One of Brown's five grandchildren, Holly, 22, said, "We are all very proud of him and what he did for all of us. The bits of metal in him just show how horrible the war was."

She said Brown kept a journal of his wartime experiences, in which he says he introduced the British delicacy of egg and chips to people in France. But he also wrote that of the original 900 members of his regiment, only 29 lived to come home.

TWW team member Charles Alkula, who is the chaplain resident at the Audie Murphy VA Hospital in San Antonio, comments that in his work, he hears "a lot about suffering in its many forms. This story about the shrapnel is replayed many times each day, and the shrapnel doesn't always present in the form of shards of metal."

More on this story can be found at this link:

Weighty Memento: War Veteran's Secret Revealed After His Death. The Telegraph

NOTE: As we go to press, new reports indicate that the origin of the metal in Ronald Brown's body is not as certain as originally thought (see update here). However, for the purposes of this lesson, we will base our reflections on the initial reports. Either way, Mr. Brown carried in his body lingering discomfort resulting from his service in the war.

The Big Questions

1. What sorts of emotional, spiritual or psychological baggage do people tend to carry? Name as many types as you can.

2. What is implied by referring to these matters as "baggage"? Is "baggage" something different from "sin"? Explain your answer.

3. What sorts of emotional or spiritual wounds can people have but not be aware of as injuries? What kinds of problem-causing behavior can arise from such unrecognized injuries? How does such lack of awareness occur?

4. What is the meaning of bearing one's cross? When have you been conscious of carrying a cross?

5. Insofar as you are comfortable sharing with your group: What emotional, psychological or spiritual "shrapnel" are you aware of carrying around with you? In what ways does your faith in Christ help you deal with it? Are there any wounds that you have hesitated to expose to your faith?

Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

Genesis 50:20
"Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today." (For context, read 50:15-21.)

This is Joseph's statement to his brothers, who had years earlier sold him into slavery. That was, of course, a bad thing. But Joseph is here saying that God took a bad thing and brought some good out of it: The sale into slavery brought Joseph to Egypt, where he was in a position to respond when Pharaoh needed a dream interpreted, and then to assist with managing food during a time of famine.

Question: When has something that wounded you and left you with some kind of ongoing pain become an avenue for something good? Sometimes non-Christians misunderstand it when Christians refer to some tragedy as being part of "God's will," as if God desires to harm people. How can you explain to them what is meant?

Matthew 8:16-17
"That evening they brought to [Jesus] many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, 'He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.'" (For context, read 8:14-17.)
Romans 8:26
"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words." (For context, read 8:18-27.)

Note how Matthew, the gospel writer, describes Jesus' activities: "... he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick." Then Matthew adds that Jesus' work that day fulfilled a prophecy from Isaiah (53:4), which Matthew quotes: "He took our infirmities and bore our diseases."
              
Notice that in both cases, there are two activities named: healing (or bearing our diseases) and casting out spirits (taking our infirmities). The same Greek word translated as "infirmities" here is also used in Romans 8:26. In the King James Version it's still "infirmities." Several newer translations, seeking a more modern equivalent, substitute not "illnesses," but "weaknesses." The Hebrew word in Isaiah is even more poignant, with shades of grief, pain and sorrow.

In the Bible, the word "infirmity" or "weakness" seems to mean something between our sins on the one hand and our illnesses on the other. The Matthew reading above equates this with being possessed by spirits, but the context leads us to believe it may be some kind of emotional baggage being referred to, a part of our psyches that has been wounded or scarred by life. Such wounds tend to trigger responses at inappropriate moments, and often interfere with our relationships. For baggage, this passage of Scripture suggests that what is needed is neither forgiveness nor medicine, but divine healing.

We Christians, who know the vocabulary of righteousness, may be tempted to label some of these hang-ups as sins, and that can be confusing. The person who has too high an opinion of herself may be guilty of the sin of pride, but the one who flaunts his abilities may not be proud at all. He may have such low self-esteem that his apparent pride is actually an attempt to hide how worthless he feels. What he suffers from is not sin, but baggage. And what he needs is not forgiveness, but healing. With our finite knowledge, we often cannot be sure.

Question: In what ways can God heal our weaknesses?

2 Corinthians 12:7-9
"Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." (For context, read 12:1-10.)

We don't know what the "thorn" in Paul's flesh was. It may have been a physical problem. Commentators over the centuries have suggested that it might have been epilepsy, severe headaches, malaria or eyesight problems (perhaps the side effect of his blinding-light conversion experience; see Acts 9). Others have speculated that he was referring to spiritual temptation (such as to shirk the duties of the apostolic life), the persecutions he encountered or even carnal temptations. But it could just as easily have been an emotional problem, a phobia or a psychological hang-up.

Interestingly, the Greek word often translated "thorn" can also mean "stake," and in Paul's day, criminals were sometimes impaled on a sharp stake. Whatever was troubling Paul, he perhaps felt that it was impaling him. Three times Paul prayed that the thorn/stake might be removed, but he discovered that God was not going to remove it (recall that the doctors decided not to remove Brown's shrapnel). Instead, God helped Paul find strength to live with it. In fact, Paul said, "Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong" (v.10).

Question: When has a personal issue that cannot be removed led you to find greater strength from Christ?

Mark 8:34
"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." (For context, read 8:31-38.)

Not every burden we carry has been inflicted on us; some we choose to carry, and for Christians, the cross of Christ represents such a choice. Note, however, that cross-carrying refers to Jesus' cross and not our own. Sometimes we refer to some annoyance or problem in our lives as "our cross to bear," but when we apply that expression to difficulties of the sort that come to most of us whether we are Christians or not, we are missing the point. Jesus was speaking of something far more significant, and it had nothing to do with problems that would have beset us whether we were following him or not.

This passage of Scripture comes at the midpoint of Mark's account of Jesus' life. More importantly, it comes at a crossroad in the 12 disciples' journey with Jesus. Until that point, following him had been a fairly upbeat affair: The sick had been healed, the hungry fed, storms had been stilled, the possessed had been freed of their demons, and other miracles had taken place. No problem seemed too big to surmount. The Twelve had traveled with Jesus throughout all this, and it had been exciting.

But in this passage, Jesus changed the tone of things abruptly when he announced that he was soon to suffer, be rejected, be killed and then rise again. He added that continuing to follow him would require the disciples to deny themselves and carry a cross. In effect, Jesus was saying, "From here on, the road gets much harder. You need to decide if you're going to continue with me. If you decide to stay with me, be prepared to be rejected by many and even to give your life."

Cross carrying then, does not mean putting up with some problem or irritation. It means denying ourselves and putting Christ's claim on us first. Certainly not every cross means doing something we find distasteful, but it does mean that walking with Jesus has a higher priority than pursuing things that interfere with his will for us.

Question: In what circumstances are you aware of the weight of Christ's cross that you have chosen to carry?           

For Further Discussion

1. Suppose everything that bothers you -- every trouble, worry, guilt, problem, pain, regret, grief -- were somehow given tangible form and piled up on your shoulders. How heavy would that load be? How do you manage to carry it? How can you unload some of it?

2. Comment on this, heard in a sermon: "The fact is, very few of us reach adulthood without baggage of some kind. We may suffer from exaggerated guilt, wounded self-esteem, the inability to accept responsibility for our mistakes, extreme defensiveness, overwhelming anxiety, undue depression, too much anger or the inability to express anger, feelings of inferiority, excessive shyness and so forth. Some of this baggage may simply be annoying, but some is downright painful and crippling, especially in relationships."

3. Respond to this: In Galatians 6:2, Paul says, "Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." But just three verses later, he says, "For all must carry their own loads." The advice that Christians ought to bear one another's burdens is an excellent statement of what ought to happen in churches, among friends and in families. But "everyone must carry his own load" is a reminder not to place unrealistic expectations on that advice. Don't think for one minute that a burden shared is a burden gone. Others can lighten our load, but never can they fully remove it. In the final analysis, we continue to carry it ourselves.

4. Comment on this: There is a story about a missionary who was teaching in a culture where it was the custom to sit on the floor. She found it physically uncomfortable to sit this way for extended periods, but did it anyway. One day, one of her pupils noticed the teacher's discomfort, so she moved over and sat down behind the teacher, back to back, so that her back supported the teacher's back. The teacher was grateful, but soon the pupil realized that the teacher was trying not to put too much weight on her. So the girl whispered to the teacher, "If you love me, lean hard."

Responding to the News

Here are four things people have found helpful in dealing with their infirmities/weaknesses:

1. Ask God to help us face our problems squarely and without rationalization. Admit to him the specific reaction that interferes with our relationships and keeps us from being whole.

2. Empty the poison bottle. In other words, take a look at those whom we blame for certain hang-ups and decide what we need to do to keep those memories from poisoning us today. In some cases, that may mean forgiving someone. In others, it may mean holding someone accountable.

3. Accept the responsibility for who we are today. In terms of understanding where our various complexes originate, it may be helpful, briefly, to look at what circumstances in our past have contributed to the shaping of our present personalities, but it's far more important to say, "Regardless of how I got where I am, I am responsible for dealing with it now and for working to become the whole person God intended me to be." That may even mean ignoring certain gut reactions and behaving in more adult ways instead.

4. Lay the problem before God. This suggests that while emotional baggage is not a failure of spiritual commitment, we are nonetheless right in bringing it to God for healing and help. These areas of our lives are not subject to ordinary prayer, discipline or willpower, but they can be changed by the special healing attention of God.