Journal of Sacred Work

Unless we are prepared to create the climate, the law can never bring victory. – Rev. James Lawson, (In 1960, after being expelled from Vanderbilt Divinity School for advising sit-in students to continue to protest.)

   So often, I’ve heard people in leadership roles complain that, "you can’t change people." To a limited extent, they are correct. But, there is a larger truth. We are all influenced by the climate of our culture. A climate of justice exposes injustice. A climate of hate brings out the worst of our humanity. A climate of apathy drags down excellence.  A climate of Love awakens the best energy that lives within us.
   Caregivers can create cultures of Love within the encounters they experience each day…

   Whether your culture supports you or not, you can awaken Love’s energy  by reaching beyond your
needs to meet the needs of others. In the culture of the Civil Right movement, the energy of Love was awakened by the courage of the participants. Rising above their everyday lives in the 1950s and early 60s, thousands of ordinary citizens responded to the call of Love’s justice. They saw the face of hate in the white-dominated south. They responded with the strength of the human heart. They rose up, many people as one soul, and reclaimed the center of fairness.
   Each day, every caregiver encounters some sense of injustice in the world. They see patients waiting too long. They see patients humiliated in the world’s most ridiculous clothing – the patient gown. They see people suffering because they, as nurses or social workers or housekeepers, are not receiving the support they need from leaders – leaders more focused on the bottom line than on the call of Love.
   How do we create a climate of Love? We cannot "change" people. But we can help create climates that honor justice. We can, as Gandhi so often said, be the change we want to see in the world. We can make our own contribution to the culture of our team, our workplace, and those we serve. We can be people of Love.
   How do you affect the climate of culture in your workplace?

-Erie Chapman