Journal of Sacred Work

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free… I lift my lamp beside the golden door." – Words on the Statue of Liberty

 
  With her crowned head and raised torch, The Statue of Liberty has welcomed millions to come through "the golden door" of hope. The statue offers a great promise: come here and you will "breathe free."

   If a Statue of Healthcare were erected before America's hospitals and charities, it might read: "Give me your sick, your injured, your suffering, and I will treat their maladies with competence and compassion."

   Would such a line ring true? We know the answer. We know that some hospitals offer competence but very little compassion. We know that others offer compassion, but may be short on competence. And we know that some offer neither. Their mission statements are nothing more than lies.

   What is rarest of all are the hospitals and charities that offer both competence and compassion consistently. We are always searching for these hospitals – the ones whose performance matches mission. Where are they? The healthcare organization that most people believe represents the gold standard is the Mayo Clinic. It is neither faith-based nor a hospital, nor a non-profit.  

   Perhaps, this means that it is time for us to hold the rest of America's hospitals accountable – to challenge them to either live their mission statement of to change it. Meanwhile, each of us can take the chance, today, to raise the torch of hope to the suffering who appear before us and to offer them the grace of God's Love.

-Erie Chapman