Journal of Sacred Work

Caregivers have superpowers! Radical Loving Care illuminates the divine truth that caregiving is not just a job. It is Sacred Work.

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Former President & CEO of multiple hospital systems and founding president & CEO of 20-hospital OhioHealth, best selling author, film artist, ordained minister, composer, published poet, syndicated T.V. host, trial attorney, federal prosecutor and Municipal Court Judge. Erie is internationally known as the founder of the Radical Loving Care(R)movement. He also heads Erie Chapman Foundation, Dane Dakota Productions, LLC, and Chapman Health International, Inc.

Recent Posts

About

Former President & CEO of multiple hospital systems and founding president & CEO of 20-hospital OhioHealth, best selling author, film artist, ordained minister, composer, published poet, syndicated T.V. host, trial attorney, federal prosecutor and Municipal Court Judge. Erie is internationally known as the founder of the Radical Loving Care(R)movement. He also heads Erie Chapman Foundation, Dane Dakota Productions, LLC, and Chapman Health International, Inc.

On Love

Do not waste your time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor, act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.                                                    -Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis

   

   The only way to fail the test of sacred work and of life is not to take it – to retreat to the grandstands and watch passion playing out on the great field before us.

   What is the challenge for every caregiver in the world? It is always tempting to run away, to rest where we are, to give in to inertia a stop trying, to ignore the need of another and dwell in ourselves. The challenge is to keep trying – because the person before you needs your strength.

   The gift of life is the gift of love. The only way to live love is to live with passion, to take the field with all its suffering and joy and the demands of others who need our love. And to know, at the end, that we have made our best effort to improve the lives of others and that we, ourselves, have lived and we have loved. This is the chance life offers to us. Take it.   

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4 responses to “On Love”

  1. Mary Ann Baldwin Avatar
    Mary Ann Baldwin

    Thank you for the wonderful quote from C.S. Lewis. As a caregiver, I have started relying more and more on your meditations for inspiration. Thank you for the reminder to live with passion. I try to do this but sometimes feel myself becoming exhausted and I know that when that happens, I get irritable. Your meditations offer a beautiful resting place. You’ve even gotten me to take at least a few minutes each day to close my eyes and rest. You’re right. It really helps!
    Mary Ann Baldwin

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  2. liz Wessel Avatar
    liz Wessel

    A spiritual truth that I have experienced, as true, is that whatever we do to another we actually do to ourselves. So if we hurt someone else we are really hurting ourselves. Likewise, if we love another, we are loving ourselves. As Saint Frances said, “It is in the giving that we receive.”

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  3. Karen York Avatar
    Karen York

    What I am continually learning is the understanding that I need personal quiet time and meditation so that I can play out my life with passion. Your meditations, poetry, music, resting quietly, and other observations of beauty are a part of my daily routines so that I may be refreshed at the same time,embracing life.
    Karen York
    Nashville

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  4. liz Wessel Avatar
    liz Wessel

    Additional thoughts… your meditation brings to mind an article (shared by Dr. Ed Mulhern of Townshend Vermont) called “With a Steady Eye,” Parabola Magazine, Summer, 2002. In it author Rebecca Sachs Norris explains that a necessary part of life is to prepare for our eventual death. She describes the challenge of integrating an awareness of death into our every day living, as a means of becoming more fully alive. Sometimes it seems we go through life as if half asleep, lulled into thinking we have all the time in the world. So we may put off living and loving fully.
    Personally, I feel an “awakening,” or a blessing of sorts, as though a veil is lifting, and barriers are falling away. My priorities are shifting in a good way. I accept the challenge of sacred work; perhaps it is less safe, yet I know, so much richer in color, meaning, and experience.

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