Journal of Sacred Work

Today's meditation was written by Cathy Self, Senior Vice-President for the Baptist Healing Trust.

       We are, in fact, in the midst of crisis in our country and across the globe. Some attribute this crisis as one of faith and confidence. We are surely living in confusing times. In a place I would not normally expect to see, a contibutor for the magazine Institutional Investor writes of faith, failure, and forgiveness. I was taken with the universality of his wisdom, especially in the work of caregiving. He writes eloquently about our loss of faith and trust in those who have power and control in our lives. I have experienced work with leaders who have inflicted harm, some from a place of unconscious behavior, others from places of deep woundedness and brokenness. I have witnessed the broken life of a young adult struggling to let go of the tyranny of betrayal of his own father's lack of approval and support. I have seen the lives of a young wife and her newborn child left in tatters from an abusive husband. As a caregiver I have been caught in the trap of blaming and self-justification when teammates have acted without apparent care or a patient has seemed rude and rejecting of my efforts to give good care. It's a challenge to love when others betray your trust and confidence.

     Although speaking directly to the economic challenges we face, author Michael Carroll answers the question on how we may restore faith and confidence in a way I think is universal: "Perhaps," he writes, "we should first acknowledge that we have all had a hand in the madness that led to this crisis. Now, of course, we want to blame anyone but ourselves, our firm, our political party. But if we want to build a system in the future based on openness, we should be honest; if we want accountability, we should accept our own. A friend, who happens to be a Buddhist, says that to truly forgive another is to know and accept that that person will commit the same offense again. It is our nature, after all. We should think of ways to manage our worst impulses in the future, but we should start now with forgiveness – and not just of our debts."

     To begin to restore confidence, Whether in our financial system, our political leadership, or in the system of healthcare within which we serve, asks of us a first step – that of looking into the mirror. When I look honestly into that mirror, I see in myself the same potential to betray others' trust and confidence. I see in myself the potential to be blind to the needs of others, to be unable to see other with the eyes of the heart. In my journey of academic scholarship I once proposed a deep need to lead from the intersection if IQ (intelligence quotient), EQ (emotional quotient), and SQ (spiritual quotient). Perhaps what Love asks is that we respond most of all with high HQ – heart quotient. I feel such gratitude that within there also that potential to see with the eyes of Love. I pray your heart today will hear the sweet voice of Love and know that in our brokenness and from our own wounds we can choose to reach out with exquisite tenderness and compassion, and find restored faith and forgiveness.