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 308 – Soup & Guns

November 3, 2008

No one under the age of eighty can recall an economy that's been as bad as the one we're in right now. In the midst of these dire time, some financial analysts began searching for which companies might be thriving. Some of their findings were startling.
   It turns out that Americans are increasing their purchases of soup. As the stock of other companies crashes, Campbell Soup is thriving. Maybe this isn't so surprising. Soup is a comforting and generally inexpensive treat. You can store most brands of soup for a long time. People around our office know I'm a long time fan of soup.
   The other image is much darker. Sales of guns and ammunition are up 8-10%. It turns out Americans are increasingly worried about threats from their fellow humans. They've decided to arm themselves for protection against some imagined risk of rising crime. Their fear factor is soaring.
   Loving caregivers know that there is only one effective way to deal with rising need amid scarce resources. Love is fed by the eternal spirit. For those who may have centered their lives on money, these are terrifying times. Even for the rest of us, we mourn the rising challenges that center around meeting basic needs.
   Love, of course, is free. So is fear. But, as one great theologian once wrote, "love is free, but it's not cheap." Choosing love can feel expensive if love calls us to share our worldly goods with others.
   It's one thing for rich folks to worry about affording a third or a fourth car or a second home. It's quite another picture for caregivers who wonder if they can hold onto the one car they have and whether they can sustain the payments to live in the one home or apartment they occupy.
   In Nashville, I know caregivers who have had their cars repossessed and others who have lost their homes. Food banks here are strained and the one charity that shelters displaced families is in fragile financial shape. More emergencies loom.
   The answer to these new threats does not, of course, lie in guns and bullets. Now is a time when those who have must dig deeper to help those who have not.
   Love is never tested. Love never ends. But, we will be tested everyday on our ability to choose Love's pathway against the temptation to arm ourselves with the false security that comes from buying guns and hiding.
   What do you think?

-Erie Chapman

Posted in Meditations

5 responses to “Day 308 – Soup & Guns”

Edwin Loftin

November 3, 2008

“Between stimulus and response there is a space….”
As Erie has just stated we as healing/loving caregivers have a choice to make now and at every minute of every day. In “that space” we must choose love and demonstrate to those who are challenged the most that love is the guiding light. While love is free, but not cheap….the return on investment is immeasurable.
Imagine for a moment the ROI for every loving act that is carried out and then multiply that impact by the number of loving healers. With this momentum a radically new investment strategy is evident. Investment in Loving Care.

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~liz Wessel

November 3, 2008

A appreciate today’s meditation and the thoughtful and inspiring comments of both Erie and Edwin.
I agree, in every situation, we have one of two choices; a fear or love based response. Therefore, peoples’ reaction to the crisis in our country is alarming but not surprising to me. Soup offers a wholesome medicinal healing when I am sick, provides soothing warmth and comfort. America’s times of affluence and excess may well be ending. Perhaps these challenges will help us return to simpler times with greater appreciation and gratitude for what we have or can give. Acts of kindness and Loving gestures will help sustain and see us through.

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Karen York

November 3, 2008

Now is not the time to hide, but to act courageously and lovingly. Thank you for these words of comfort in these unsettling times.

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Victoria Facey

November 3, 2008

Thank you so much for today’s meditation. I learned from this reading that sometimes those with the most “things” are the most afraid, as things are often linked to security. Boy, I’ve got some sharing / shedding to do.
In the end, it is who you are and how you share yourself as a gift to others. There is a reward in that, too.

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Julia Rivard Wessel

November 3, 2008

My grandaunt weathered the depression in SLC, UT and used to tell me how everyone shared with one another to get by because they all had a bond of being in the same boat. I believe that, overall, humans will come together in the face of adversity. That said, it does seem to be true that an armed society is a polite society, at least here in SD compared to SoCal. I think that with the economy in bad shape because of greed and lack of ethics, there will be an overall shift coming back to a focus of love and service as we move away from the failed doctrines of greed and self-interest above all other things. I’m looking forward to this new cycle as we reinvent America and our concepts of business mores for the good of society as a whole.

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