Chaplaincy at St. John’s

The Job

My official title at St. John's is Weekend Chaplain, so I am there mostly on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I also come in on Thursdays to meet and interact with the rest of the Spiritual Care staff who are there during the rest of the week. On Fridays I come in early with pray with those patients going in for surgery. Then on Saturdays and Sundays I come in for four hours each day to tour the floors for patients who need to see a chaplain and visit with those who will not be there on Monday. Most of my visits consist of listening to the patient's concerns and carrying those with them to the Lord in prayer. That, in brief, is my job description as a chaplain.

The Philosophy

Sounds pretty simple, right? Sometimes it is, sometimes it's quite challenging to be there with patients. A lot of this depends on how the individual patient is working through their own concerns. There is also a deeper over-arching motivation for me. Some of you have read or heard my Ephesians 2:10 sermon in which I share about how we are each God's unique children, created to know Him and be know in and through Him, and how through that knowing we will become who He created us to be. For those of you who are not familiar with that sermon, I'd be happy to send you a copy. Anyway, in part of the sermon I share about how we all have a habit of hiding our true selves from each other and even from ourselves. We each don masks everyday to be the people we feel and have been taught that we are supposed to be. Yet in a moment of crisis, I find that all the masks come off and the true person developing underneath it all comes to the surface. Sometimes we like who we are in those cases, sometimes we don't. Many of the people I encounter at the hospital are like this. Life seems to have pulled the rug out from under them and they are unsure how to react. As a chaplain, it is my desire to create a safe place where people can explore this. To be comfortable being who they are amongst all this mess of life and know that they are accepted, loved and cherished. In my reading of the Gospels, that was how Jesus interacted with those around Him and as His disciple, I wish to do likewise.

Defining my Jobs

Okay, I think I've been at both of my new jobs just long enough to be able to let you in on what I'm actually doing for a living. At the same time, I know some of you are more interested in the why rather than the what. However, in both of my jobs, the why motivates the what, so it's sometimes hard to distinguish between the two.

Let me try my hand first at working as a Personal Care Attendant (PCA). The "what" of this job differs with each client. I happen to be working with Accessible Space, Inc. (ASI), a company that builds apartments for the handicapped and offers PCA services to those that qualify. In my building there are 5 such clients and I usually share them with one or two other PCA's. With each client, the PCA works to help them do things that they can no longer do because of their particular handicap. Sometimes this means preparing meals for them and helping them eat. Other times, it means cleaning up after them and helping them change cloths. It truly is humbling work.

Which brings me to the why. Some of you who have been with me for a few years, may remember the last time I worked as a PCA. Most of what I said then, still applies here:

In my ministry to the handicapped through my work at Our House, I am doing an incarnational work. You see, when Christ came down to be with us He retained all of His divine qualities, but He also knew that if He tapped into His full potential even once, His whole mission on earth would be canceled. He could have called down legions of angels in the Garden of Gethsemane , yet He knew He needed to go to the Cross (Matt. 26:53-54). There were many times throughout His time on earth when using His divine powers seemingly would have been to His advantage. Yet He resisted this temptation because He had a higher purpose in mind: The fulfillment of His mission, that of saving His People and fulfilling the scriptures. In the same way, I too have a mission in my work with the handicapped that restricts some of my capabilities. For example, part of my work there is to help the residents go through certain programs designed to help them become more independent. Now, it is fully within my power to do these tasks for them or even physically lead them through each time, and believe me there have been many times I have been tempted to do this. However, I know that if I do, my whole purpose of promoting that residentÂ?s independence would be thwarted. If anything, I would be increasing their dependence on me as a care attendant, and while that may feed my ego and make me feel all good inside, it does little to forward the action on their independence.

What's different this time is that most of my clients here are already as "independent" as they can be within the limits of their handicaps. My job is to help those limits not be as confining.