When we serve others in the manner of The Good Samaritan we are living the highest calling of the caregiver. What so many miss about this mission is the importance of persistence.
It's fine to do good acts here and there. What is so demanding is to express Love consistently. This is the radical in Radical Loving Care – consistently going beyond what is expected, even (or especially) if we must do it along without support.
We are, of course, only human. We are vulnerable to mood, fatigue and irritability. Accordingly, we also need forgiveness – both from others and from ourselves.
I used to flay myself incessantly for failures of irritability. This has been particularly true in my forty-four year long marriage when, in the middle of some disagreement, my wife will say (correctly), "Okay, Mr. Radical Loving Care. I guess you always have to be right."
The fact is, she is right. It's in these moments of irritability that I remember, once again, how much easier it is to preach than to practice.
This is the importance of persistence – to continue trying even though we know we will fail every so often. After all, this is not about our own perfection, it is about how well we serve others.
Another value of persistence has to do with Love in the workplace. Too often, leaders and supervisors fail to recognize that it often takes years to move a culture from ordinary to extraordinary – and then to maintain that culture as lovingly as we might tend a Bonsai tree.
Beyond leaders, everyday and everynight caregivers often find themselves giving up in the face of crossfire from supervisors more focused on fear-based control than on Love. It takes enormous strength to persist in living Love.
We all know these things. What the Journal seeks is to support caregivers with periodic reminders and encouragement. (This is also the reason I am planning a new book that summarizes the key principles of Radical Loving Care in less than fifty pages.)
Know that you are loved. Living God's Love as it flows through you can be exhausting. But it is the only way of living that is truly worthwhile, isn't it?
-Reverend Erie Chapman
*Radical Loving Care is available on Amazon and also as an audio book. It is also available via our fulfillment person, Van Grafton via vgraft@comcast.net. All proceeds go to Erie Chapman Foundation, a Nashville-based charity.
Journal of Sacred Work 
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