Callouses

Two voices have spoken to my life this week. Rather, I should say one Voice has spoken to me this week through two instruments. One is an elder statesman, the other a minister in the dawn of his ministerial journey. Both delivered the same message. A message I needed to hear; that we all need to hear.

Dr. Robert Crick began his journey as a chaplain in the 1960’s. He was an airborne chaplain in the Army. A role that combined sacraments, marriage counseling, preaching, and jumping out of perfectly good airplanes in some of the hottest hot zones of the Vietnam War. He became the first Pentecostal Clinical Pastoral Supervisor in the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education in a day when many considered Pentecostals as victims of some kind of pathology. Since the end of his military career, he has been the Director of the Church of God Chaplains Commission, my endorsing agency in the field of chaplaincy.

He met with a few of us this past week at the Spiritual Care Collaborative Conference (a joint meeting of Assoc. of Professional Chaplains, Assoc. for Clinical Pastoral Education, National Assoc. of Catholic Chaplains, National Assoc. of Jewish Chaplains, Assoc. for Pastoral Care and Counseling and Canadian Assoc. for Pastoral Practice and Education). I was struck again by his passion for the work we are called to do and his compassion for those of us who do it. The years of jumping out of planes have long passed, but he is still as passionate and tenderhearted a person as you’ll ever meet.

Robert Ward is just beginning his career in ministry as a Lay Minister in the Presbyterian Church. As part of his training, he shadowed me here for several days this past summer. Months ago, he sent me a copy of his first sermon. I put it in my cd player, got called away for something I can’t even remember now, and found it today when I went to insert another presentation to review. It was a message I needed to hear today. In it I heard a fresh voice speak of what happens here in my hospital as seen through fresh eyes. It was a beautiful message, beautifully done.

What I heard as the Voice spoke through these two instruments was that I can become accustomed to what I see, hear, and encounter in this work. But I need not, must not become calloused by it. Have you heard that Voice too?

Blessings to you all,