Journal of Sacred Work

   Loving leadership is not reserved for people with manager titles. In healing hospitals and hospices, everyone, regardless of job description, is a caregiver.

   Maintenance staff, plumbers, electricians, housekeepers, secretaries, unit clerks, each and every caregiving partner is capable of leading others along the path of loving care. Each can lead by example and by the presence of their energy.

   Most of us understand that God's Love expresses itself through the most wonderful & mystical energy we can know. To understand this energy, consider those who experienced it as worldly "saints" (whether Catholic or not) and those who are anonymous.     

   The saintly live in the world. Therefore, the fact that all of them have flaws as well as the energy of great gifts should be self-evident.

   When they are doing God's work, Loving leaders, consciously, engage all seven of the energies. There are no exceptions. In these people, we see The Servant's Heart.

   Here is the summary-list for your reflection. Each energy is label with the same first letter to make them easier to remember.

THE SEVEN ENERGIES OF LOVING LEADERSHIP

1) Purpose & Commitment: Loving leaders find a high purpose and commit to it. Their lives are always dedicated to the endless energy of meaningful work. Consider (and read about) Dr. Victor Frankl.

2) Passion & Humility: God's Love cannot come to us unless we let the pride of ego fall away and replace it with humility. When we do, passion's energy can lift loving leaders to extraordinary heights. Lovers of God always choose work they feel called to do. They live their passion – what they love, not what they simply like. In the midst of expressing this passion, Loving leaders come to understand that their passion finds its highest expression when they humble themselves to accept God's Love – to accept that God's Love comes not from us, but through us. Consider the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.

3) Potential: Passion and Purpose help Lovers understand the gifts God has given them, as well as the gifts given to others. They open these personal gifts to serve the purpose of their work. Consider the life of the blind and deaf saint named Helen Keller.

4) Perseverance: This is the energy to endure even when it no longer seems worth it – to keep marching forward when every worldly force says it's time to give up. Or, as author Ralph Elison wrote, "to continue to play in the face of certain defeat." I sometimes think this is the most important energy of the seven. It took him all of his adult lifetime. Finally, Mahatma Gandhi, transformed the lives of over three hundred million people as he freed the entire nation of India through non-violence.

5) Prayer & Meditation: Practices that allow us to withdraw to the silence of quieter energy. Prayer and Meditation (including the full range of meditative practices) are a crucial part of self-care. Lovers know that God's energy lies within. They also know it needs constant nurturing and renewal. These practices keep Lovers in touch with "the better angels of their nature." Through prayer, Mother Theresa discovered her calling and fixed on it with such certainty that she became a world model for Loving leadership.

6) Positive Thinking & Good Humor: This energy sometimes seems over-hyped. Yet, it is chronically under-appreciated, misunderstood and ridiculed. Many people think this is "happy" energy. It is not. Positive thinking is not limited to Hallmark card slogans and repeated repetitions of "have-a-good day" . It is the adoption of a tough, mental and spiritual approach that carries a single message: Love will prevail. In spite of periodic bouts of depression, I believe Abraham Lincoln is a fine example of the richest form of positive thinking.

7) The Peace of Love's Presence: As loving caregivers engage the first six energies at deeper and deeper levels, and with humility, they are sometimes surprised to find that they have developed the finest energy of all: inner peace. All of the above developed such a sense of inner peace that it gave them what we call "charisma." Charisma isn't sought, it arrives when all the energies travel thorough us. In this peace, we feel God's presence, and so do others as we engage them in sacred relationship.

Again, every saintly person has engaged all seven of these energies. Here is the good news, all seven energies are available to each of us. Here is the other news, the energy is free but not cheap. It costs a great deal to realign our thinking so that we engage Love's energy.

The life choice to be a loving leader is a daily one. I hope this review will help you, and help you help others.

-Erie Chapman