Journal of Sacred Work

…and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a
ransom for many.
-Mark 10:44,45

   Jesus’ teachings are so clear and so confusing. For the people of his time, it must have seemed he was speaking in riddles. How could the "first" be a slave to all others? Why wouldn’t God’s Son sit back like other kings and be waited on?
   This, of course, is both the genius and the challenge of God’s Love. We are called, as caregivers, to serve others beyond ourselves. Yet when we gain power in any arena, the inclination of most of us is to use that power (and the money that goes with it) to serve ourselves…

   It’s as if some of us who claim to be Christians are thinking, "Hey, I’m glad Jesus made that big sacrifice for me because I’m sure not going to be any body’s servant much less slave."
   And yet the clearest presence of God’s Love in this world occurs when we a caregiver puts aside her or his comfort to meet the needs of another. A mother, bone-tired from a hard day’s work, rises
in the middle of the night to nurse her baby. A doctor, exhausted after eighteen straight hours of work, chooses to stay by the beside of his or her patient because the patient needs the doctor’s presence more than medicine. A nurse at the end of a double shift holds a loving smile as she helps turn a patient.
   How does God’s love appear in this world? Here is a story I heard today. A woman who had been beaten by her husband came to the Mathew Walker Clinic for care. All the nurse was required to do was treat her wounds. But, like a Good Samaritan, she went far beyond her job description. In a few sentences, I can only tell you part of what she did.
   First she gave the name of a shelter to the woman. Next she followed up and called the woman after she got home. When she sensed the woman’s fear at leaving, she stayed present to her until the woman made the decision to seek shelter. This loving nurse still wasn’t through. She arranged to talk with the woman at the shelter to see that she was okay. All of this happened over several days of compassionate and effective follow-up by this nurse. With each act, she went beyond the stict rules of her "job description" to give loving care to a woman in deep need.
   Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. The clinic nurse could have served her own needs but sending this woman on her way and moving on to the next case. Instead, she chose to give loving care – to be an example of God’s love in this world.

  I have told many people that I think one of the best Christians who ever lived was actually a Hindu. Gandhi lived his life and his leadership with the kind of humility Jesus taught. At the height of his power, he was by far the most influential leader in all of India. He could have occupied a palace, engaged hundreds of servants, and worn the richest clothes. In other words, he could have acted like almost every other powerful leader in the world today.
   Instead, he lived humbly, had no servants, and wore the simplest of clothes. And he changed the world by being the first to establish, on the world stage, the practice of non-violence that Martin Luther King, Jr. later used as the key strategy to integrate the southern United States.
   Jesus taught us with words, with healing miracles, with the example of humility, and with his transforming strength in the face of temptation. Then he gave his life for us. And then, in case we might still doubt, he was resurrected.
   Two thousand years later, do we yet understand how God’s love appeared in this world through Christ? And do we see God’s love today?
   If we are watching and listening, we will see God’s presence in the way some caregivers live love. Bless them all.

-Erie Chapman