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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Days 354-356 – The Christmas “Leap of Faith”

December 20, 2010

"For those with faith, no explanation is necessary. For those without, no explanation is possible." –Saint Thomas Aquinas

"How can you have faith if you've never known trust?" – Glenn S. – Prisoner #321012 – Riverbend Maximum Security Prison.

Death Row prisoner Glenn S. keeps teaching me things as I seek to minister to him. They come from the life of a man scheduled to die.

Glenn doubts things he can't see. Raised Southern Baptist he is disgusted with how life has treated him. He has turned his back on faith because, as he says, he has "never known trust."

How would you feel about God if your mother had turned her back on you as a child? What would you think of Jesus if you had been forced to live in nineteen different homes between the ages of seven and fifteen? What would you think about religion if all you heard in church was that you were a sinner damned to hell?

As a caregiver to Glenn, I want to help him discover his spirituality – some source of hope beyond the confines of his cell and the uncertainties of the legal system. I asked one of my ministers, Rev. April Baker, for help. "Faith comes from doubt." she told me.

I was startled. How can faith rise up from what seems to be its opposite?

The more I reflect, the more it becomes clear to me that April is right. Early on, we learn to trust what our five senses tell us. Faith cannot pass this test of five-sense reasoning.

Reason creates doubt. So, faith requires that we free ourselves from worldly analysis.

Reason condemns us to doubt. Faith is grounded in hope that is "unreasonable."

This is what Reverend Baker was saying. Glenn can't "trust" the world. But, faith is not about trusting the things of this world, is it? We find in the Bible that, "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

If we are to have faith we must take what Kierkegaard described as the "leap of faith." Centuries ago, the theologian Blaise Pascal explained "Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God."

What if we don't feel we are experiencing this "Gift?" What if, in the midst of caring for sick adults and suffering children, we find God is not giving us the answers we seek?

Perhaps, we should let go of telling God how big our problem is and, instead, tell the problem how big our God is.

Love is larger than trouble. Love's healing is not only our fondest hope in this world, but our salvation in the eternity in which we already live.

So long as Glenn is mired in the world he will be vulnerable to the world's shifting winds. Once he leaps over reason and lets himself fall into the misted land of Faith, he will discover the twin Christmas miracles we all seek: Hope and Love.

-Reverend Erie Chapman

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10 responses to “Days 354-356 – The Christmas “Leap of Faith””

Diana Gallaher

December 20, 2010

If Glenn is right and you cannot have faith without first knowing trust, I pray that he will experience trust through you. I have a feeling that he will come to know trust through his relationship with you.

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Karen York

December 20, 2010

“Love’s healing is not only our fondest hope in this world, but our salvation in the eternity in which we already live”…WOW
What a powerful insight for so many of us whose training is that “eternity” is somehow in the future. Like it starts when we die or when the second coming occurs. This changes the way I see things today. Thank you. Bless you.

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~liz Wessel

December 20, 2010

There are no easy answers when one reflects on the tragedy of Glen’s early beginnings and where this path has taken him. I can’t help wonder if you are the first person to ever take an interest in his well being and the first person willing to go beyond the cold hard wall of his disdain. It does not sound like a comfortable place to venture; certainly not for the faint at heart. I imagine this to be the most difficult accompanying a person could attempt. When all else is stripped away and there is only the “naked now” what matters? Only Love’s presence. I pray for open-heart seeing for both you and Glen and a sacred space for Divine healing to enter. I wholeheartedly agree with Diana’s and Karen’s genuine affirmations of you and your willingness to be Love’s presence on the wings of hope.

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Victoria Facey

December 20, 2010

As a child, one of the first things I remembered in a church sermon was that we were all sinners. A scary thing for a child to wonder about what they did – where they went wrong…
Thankfully I wanted to be blessed and cleansed so I continued in to learn about faith to be right and to live in God’s light. And, because of God’s love and caring, I know I am a better person (I feel it and I trust it.) But for some, it is easier to turn away from the promise of faith: something you can’t touch, hear or see. My husband doesn’t believe in religion because he says that it causes war between countries and people of different faiths. My daughter rebukes the topic and I think so because she would have to be more involved to embrace it. I wonder why the ones I love take this position and it often makes me sad…

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xavier espinosa

December 21, 2010

I once had the wonderful opportunity to work with one of the most intelligent, educated person who possessed the most wry sense of humor.To this day, many of her comments still give me cause to smile and laugh outloud and give me pause to think of how many life learning moments she imparted to me. Once a fellow coworker was lamenting over the trials and tribulations she was enduring from a man who treated her poorly, yet she still held on to the notion that her was the love of her life and destined to be her everafter. The wise one sat back and smiled and said- “You have great faith” When pressed further by the lovelorn she added- “Faith is the unaltering belief in that which has no physical proof”
In my own life I wonder why it is that I have loved, why I have opened myself to others, sharing my intimacies, my fears, loves, hopes and dreams and many times weakend by the lack of reciprocity. In many instances I have referred to myself as “the rainy day friend” called on to help through the rough times and then quickly remanded to a place where the most one could hope for is a quick hello. But I maintain these relationships because in the moments when needed, the help is accepted, the advice is not always appreciated, but an impact is made as evidenced by the argument and the emotions elicited. Love is not easy, life is not painless, faith in the inherent goodness of ourselves makes it possible to give without limits and to accept that gratitude can not be measured by standards created by our own egos. We can not encourage faith, we can only bear witness to the power that allows others to explore, find, hurt and continue. There is the where we gain, learn and grow in our own faith and love

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Marily

December 21, 2010

Like the Dove above, may we flap our borrowed wings through the misted land of Faith, for it knows only by Grace there’s Hope and Love beyond. May Holy Spirit come and fill our open hearts.

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~liz Wessel

December 22, 2010

I am really taken in by the divine image of the dove…
A friend sent me this Christmas greeting today. A message that resonates with your reflection, Erie and I wanted to share it.
THE WORK OF CHRISTMAS
When the song of the angels is silent.
When the star in the sky is gone.
When the kings and princes are home.
When the shepherds are again tending their sheep.
When the manger is darkened and still.
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry
To rebuild the nations
To bring peace among people
To befriend the lonely
To release the prisoner
To make music
In the heart.
– Howard Thurman, theologian

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John Valentino

December 22, 2010

I have absolutely no clue how a man on death row could possibly put his faith in a Christmas baby born 2000 years ago. That’s why we put these things in God’s hands and that’s why I believe in miracles. May God be with Glenn S. and with Erie in their sacred journey.

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Maria Doglio

December 24, 2010

Erie, your story of Glenn S., sitting on death row, filled me with compassion for this man and his circumstance. I can’t imagine what his life was like as a child growing up with such negative adversities that led him to be on death row, nor can I imagine what it is like to be in a prison of that sort. As I think of this person, I wonder what potential in him was crushed as he grew to be a man.
Glenn’s issues are obviously very complicated and go deep whin his psyche. His questions, from his perspective, are legitimate. It seems that if Glenn has no faith or trust in himself, how can he find it outside himself in society, in prison, or in a religion or in God that all seemingly condemn him? Will Glenn ever be able to recover his self worth?
What tools can you give Glenn to help him change his perception? When we change our perception, we change our world. I have come to understand that we can only help lead people towards change. We can’t make a person change. Real change must first come from within self. What we can do is offer tools of guidance that help change perception to a higher state of being. If Glenn is shown unconditional LOVE and faith in him by those around him that he can do it, trust may eventually be restored. Faith in his own spirituality and connection to God just may have a chance to blossom. Ultimately, it is up to Glenn.

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Maria Doglio

December 28, 2010

“Real faith is beyond hope. Faith simply knows.”
Quote by Alan Cohn – thought I’d add it to this posting of comments. I like it when the “knowing” just comes over you.

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