Listening

Today I had the chance to listen to one of our hospital chaplains speak to a clinical pastoral education class. This is a team of pastors and spiritual leaders who are learning specialized skills for serving patients and their families during health challenges. As it turns out the main focus of the work is not on how to solve a patient's problems or guide them to a spiritual enlightenment or awakening. No, what matters in these situations is being able to listen and empathize. It's about letting people articulate what matters to them and reveal their own spiritual truths.

I really appreciated what one of our chaplains shared during his remarks. It went something like this:

When we read the Bible, we put a lot of emphasis on letting the Bible interpret itself. We try to remove our bias, opinions and preconceived notions and instead allow the Word of God to reveal itself to us. It should be the same with others. We should allow people to articulate their experience and what's going on in their hearts and minds, without letting or our bias about who/what they are leading us to what we think they need or should want from us. 

This was such a good reminder for me. I often find myself living in a world of perceptions. It's important to really listen, and to ask the right questions, in order to truly understand people. Let them tell you what they need and why. Sometimes the act of listening is more valuable than anything else.

Here a couple of our chaplains share incredible stories about their work here.