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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Day 14 – Answer Quick, God!

January 14, 2008

The picture at left (click to enlarge) is a nice way to start today, or any day. Two babies, in a random encounter, are fascinated with each other. Their parents, preoccupied with other transactions, are unaware of the gentle interaction transpiring behind their backs.
These infants know nothing about hurrying and are free of worry. Their parents have experienced all the anxieties velocity can bring.
Recently, I asked a senior hospital executive with whom I do some coaching how she was doing finding time for reflection. "Well," she said, "I try hard to set aside time in the morning to ask God’s help. Sometimes, I’m in such a rush, I feel like saying, ‘Answer quick, God, I’m in a heck of a hurry.’"…

What is in front of us can seem so much more important than what is within us.
The difficulty we have with encountering ourselves is reinforced by a common comment I hear from so many people: "How are you keeping busy?" they ask me, as if "keeping busy" was infinitely more important than personal reflection. In fact, if I answer, "I’ve been spending time in quiet reflection," they look at me as if I’m crazy. Instead of being intrigued by the idea of reflection, they are more likely to ask, "Are you depressed?"
I am not suggesting we should all become monks or nuns in seclusion. The objective is balance. Life gains richness and meaning through reflection as well as through action. It is in reflection that we have the opportunity to rededicate ourselves to Love and to renew our personal commitment to live Love.
Later in our conversation, the senior executive said to me, "You know what? I’m doing my best to squeeze in reflection time." Her plight is poignant and understandable. All day long, her work and her family place constant demands before her. Yet, she can only succeed if she carves out special time for herself.
She also offers a practical answer: "During my drives to work and to our hospitals. "I don’t turn on the radio. Sometimes I have twenty whole minutes in the car and I just use the time to breathe and reflect."
This is the wisdom we seek. We all need to find that twenty minutes one way or another. Perhaps, in the rest of the time, we can live as a continuous prayer of dedication to Love. Living Love can be an every moment experience, not something reserved only for our quiet moments. For it is in our everyday encounters with life that our commitment to Love shines through.
It’s hard to hear the energy of God/Love in the middle of hurrying. Love does not "answer quick." As some sage has said, speed is not like the devil, it is the devil.
How are you doing, in the early days of this year, at finding time for the kind of personal reflection that is bringing balance to your life? Is that time helping to enrich all of your moments?

-Erie Chapman

Posted in Meditations

8 responses to “Day 14 – Answer Quick, God!”

Tom Knowles-Bagwell

January 14, 2008

Hmmmm . . . I would have to say that, so far this year, I’m doing about the same as last year when it comes to finding time for quiet reflection. Maybe I’m doing a little better. I don’t tend to find myself driven by my anxieties, but there have been times in the past year — and in the past couple of weeks — when I have been. I like the picture of the babies this morning. It reminds me of our finer selves, and the possibility of Love’s finding a way in spite of us.

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Karen York

January 14, 2008

I appreciate the point of living love in an every moment experience. It seems to diminish reflection and meditation when we view it as another task that we check off our “to do” list. I realize we often need to schedule quite times because of our hurried lives, yet the real joy comes in living openly and ready for the ecstatic experience. I always chuckle at the language I have heard in church all my life. They speak as if God only comes to us within the confines of that building during the hours of 8 and 10 on Sunday. “Let’s welcome God to worship”. What about living worship all week?
A few lines from Rilke:
All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong
and varied as the land.
And no churches where God
is imprisoned and lamented
like a trapped and wounded animal…”
If God is love and we are love, let’s not relegate worship and reflection to a daily task, but as the essence of truly living.

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Victoria Facey

January 14, 2008

It’s so easy to put off doing the very thing that will bring calm to your day. I often barter my prayer and meditation time to the end of the day, in exchange for several rounds of “something else”. I know, it’s an empty, unhealthy habit.
So each morning now, as soon as I am aware of awakening, I begin with prayer and reflection, then add meditation. So far, so good. It’s still early in the year (smile)…v

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Lorilee Amlie

January 14, 2008

I have to say that in the last 6 months since being introduced to this site, Radical Loving Care, Liz and Erie, I definitely spend more time in reflection and examining my relationship with God. I spend more time Living Love at work and having Sacred Encounters occur.
I have to admit it can be a struggle sometimes to remember to behave in the way I would like to, but that is my daily reflection: To improve my Self inside out and treat all with Love.

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liz Wessel

January 14, 2008

Like you Tom I too enjoyed the photos of the babies that help us remember our true essence.
I appreciate your beautiful response, Karen.
Thank you Lorilee for your affirmations; this Journal is a gift to so many of us. I admire how you express yourself with such honesty.
Contemplative prayer and meditation are foundational in my life. To spend time in quiet reflection and listen for God’s voice in the stillness is, to me, the holiest of prayers. I find my relationship deepening with God each day. Meditation is an essential practice in learning how to be present in the moment. In subtle ways and without effort, balance returns quite naturally when I take time to meditate. To sit in open awareness, to breathe, notice, and to accept without judgment, is a gift that continually blesses and unfolds me.

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Edwin Loftin

January 14, 2008

As many have reflected before– the innocence and honesty of childhood can ..no must be teachers. Our fight to manage our busyness, our struggle to “make” time for meditation and relection are reults of the adult loss of childhood magic. As a child, how hard is it to lay in the grass and gaze at the stars, how hard is it to sit on the fence rail and ponder the cows for hours, how hard is it to sit at the streams edge and watch the shifting of the clear sandy bottom.
These times of a childhood are our opportunities to learn and teach ourselves how to reflect, meditate, and ultimately become closer with God, Love, and Living Love.

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Erie Chapman

January 14, 2008

Thanks for these terrific contributions to this conversation among caregivers.

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Sherri Mills

January 15, 2008

I just read the comments from the 14th and I am grateful–My thanks to each of you. Prior to reading your comments my friend and I just finished talking on the phone about our ‘reflections’ over the past year at our work site. Our conversation was filled with laughter, her anger and grief due to a car accident she was involved in and continues to heal from, warmth, playfulness, love, grace and ultimately feeling very humble at the very preciousness of all life. We discussed the fact that we sometimes give our power away and take things that happen at work too seriously and reminded ourselves that we need to let go-let God, to live in the moment, to be in prayer mode 24/7, to remind ourselves to breathe deeply, open our heart chakra, and to remember that each interaction is based on having a reverence for all life, filled with grace and unconditional love and to always live in gratitude.

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