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.

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Inside Sunday Stillness The Touch Card of Remembrance

October 1, 2006

The most difficult command in the Bible may be: "be still and know that I am God."
-Dr. James Hudnut-Beumler, Dean, Vanderbilt Divinity School

We know why this command is difficult because we know about all the noise of the world. Can we find a way to hold a silence within as the world shouts at us from highways, televisions, cell phones, pagers and the second floor?

Here are the words we may hear if we are still. They arrive across the millenia from Deuteronomy, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your hearts, and with all your soul and with all our might." These words are so important, that we are called to "Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house…"

Observant Jews have a lovely way of observing this injunction. On the doorposts of their homes, they place a little rectangular case. Inside is a Mezuzah – a bit of parchment reciting the oneness of
God. Upon entering and leaving the house, the custom is to touch the Mezuzah a a reminder.
The wisdom in this is the understanding that humans need reminders. Amid all the rules and guidelines of the Bible, Dean Hudnut-Beumler tells us that all we need to remember is this commandmant plus the words of Jesus in Matthew 22. Together, they bring us the most important wisdom we may need, to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
From the Jewish tradition of touching the Mezuzah, caregivers may adopt an idea of trememdous potential value. I am inviting all hospitals, starting with those in the St. Joseph Health System, and spreading across the country, and all hospices, nursing homes and other charities, to adopt a new Touch Card system. The touch card would be placed on or near the door of each patient room. Upon approaching a room, each caregiver would be encouraged to touch the card before entering, like a knock on the door of the soul, a reminder of the sacred humanity of the person in the bed.
It’s a small thing, and it can be transformative. Because it sends a signal throughout the hospital or any charity that uses the touch card: the other person has holiness within. Respect this holiness.

Try the touch card system yourself. Create some small image that is a holy reminder for you of the need to love others. Place this near a threshold you often cross so that your hand may touch it and your heart may be reminded of the stillness within, of the love of God, and of how we express our love of God through loving others.

And now, observe the Sabbath by recalling, again, the wisdom of the Bible: "be still and know that I am God."

-Erie Chapman

Posted in Meditations

7 responses to “Inside Sunday Stillness The Touch Card of Remembrance”

Catherine Self

October 1, 2006

The Greek language captures a dimensionality to time that our own language (and experience) misses. There is the word chronos which most of us understand well – the time of the clock, the calendar, the hungry driven god of our rushed and harried world. The other word, kairos, is time as a holy purpose, a gift, an opportunity. Kairos is the what is this time for? Mark Buchanan has written a beautiful book titled The Rest of God in which he articulates the concept of time in this way:
“Chronos betrays us, always. It devours the beauty it creates. We end up…driven…racing hard against chronos, desperate to seize beauty but always grasping smoke, ashes, thorns. Seeking purpose and finding none, only emptiness.”
I can remember days at the bedside that I felt driven, racing hard against time, walking away at the end of the day with smoke, ashes, thorns and emptiness. But Buchanan then goes on to speak of kairos:
“Or we learn to follow the scent of eternity in our hearts. We begin to orient toward kairos. We start to sanctify some of our time. And an odd thing can happen then. Purpose, even unsought, can take shape out of the smallest, simplest things. This is a gift of God: to experience the sacred amidst the commonplace – to taste heaven in our daily bread…joy in the ache of our muscles or the sweat of our brows.”
At the moment of pausing at the door, of leaving chronos and stepping into kairos we have the opportunity to experience the sacred among the commonplace. On this Sabbath day, and in the days to come as you pause to experience kairos, may you taste heaven and feel the joy of this sacred work of healing with which we have been blessed.
Catherine Self, Consultant
Baptist Healing Trust

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liz Wessel RN, MS SJHS Home Health Network, Orange, CA

October 1, 2006

I especially love today’s message and the instructive quotes from the bible on this day of the Sabbath. Some months ago, I attended a silent weekend retreat led by James Finley (former monk and student of Thomas Merton). Each time we began our meditation session he would recite these words to us and we would repeat back, “Be still and know that I am God…Be still and know that I am…Be still and know…Be still…Be.” Since then, I begin my daily meditation sessions in this way, as does my little prayer group at church.
The concept of the Mezuzah is incredibly beautiful and I appreciate how you have applied this powerful idea to the creation of touch cards. I am responding to your invitation to create my own touch card and will integrate this practice into my personal life. I am going to bring this idea forward to my fellow caregivers at our healthcare Ministry. In order for this concept to take hold some planning is needed, my first step will be to begin the conversation.

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liz Wessel RN, MS SJHS Home Health Network, Orange, CA

October 1, 2006

Catherine I appreciate the beauty and wisdom in the words you share as the meaning of today’s message deepens for me. Thank you for the book recommendation, I am going to read Buchan’s book. May the lovely blessing that you offer out to us return back to you!

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Mary Jean Powell, MSW

October 1, 2006

Thank you for the touch card idea. I’m going to suggest it here at Samaritan.

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Karen York

October 1, 2006

We are in the process of developing something similar at our Residence and Inpatient Units. For those patients who are in the “active” stage of dying we will place a heart on the door to remind staff of this special phase of their journey – to enter with gentle intention and respect. The words “be still” will stay with me today even as my daughter runs in from outside to tell me that a soccer ball AND a tennis shoe are stuck in the top of a tree. This is the beauty and wonder of my life.
Karen

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Shirley Irby RN SJHS Home Health

October 1, 2006

I love the idea of a touch card. I know many nurses who stop at the front door of our patients house and say a little prayer before entering. I ask God to give me the honesty, courage, humility and serenity to face that which keeps me from God and Others. I would like to put a touch card on our patient folders for St. Joseph Home Health. For now I could write something above the cross on the folders that reminds us of the “Sacred Work of Healing”. Thank you for the wonderful ideas. I will be glad to help with the conversation Liz.

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Aaron

November 13, 2006

You may find it interesting to note the observant Jews also observe the part about binding on the hand and a symbol… by wearing boxes called Tefillin on the arm and head. You can lear more about this at http://www.mezuzahstore.com

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