"We are called to see differently - and then to live differently." - Professor Sallie McFague
Sacred Encounters are redolent with the fragrance of grace. They carry the strength of the stalk, the preciousness of the petal and the holiness of the stigma at the flower's apex.
Sacred Encounters occur every time Love meets need. Sacred Work is the sum of the Sacred Encounters we experience as we live Love through our calling.
Loving caregivers live differently and therefore "see" differently. A Lover's encounter with a magnolia blossom is not the same as others.
The Lover gives presence to the flower, not just an informational glance. Only presence can reveal the gifts this magnificent plant offers.
During her twenty-five year career, Lois Powers had dozens of sacred encounters every day. She experienced the divine because she was was open to letting it flow through her.
Lois's life as a caregiver informs all of us who seek to live Love. Her career was a profile of sacred work because of how she approached her calling.
Was she a doctor, a nurse, an occupational or physical therapist? None of these.
For a quarter of a century, Lois worked as a cashier at Nashville's Baptist Hospital.
The first thing I learned from Lois was how brief a sacred encounter can be. Cashier's work is, by nature, time-limited. For most, cashiering is purely transactional.
Not for Lois.
Every person traveling Lois's line was treated to her joke of the day if she sensed that would help them. Afflicted with a chronic and visible skin condition herself, she was exquisitely sensitive to those who, in the midst of a hospital stay, might prefer a brief touch on the arm or hand or a word or two of sympathy rather than a joke.
"It must be tough being a cashier," I told Lois shortly after I met her."
She looked at me with dismay. "I'm not a cashier. I'm a caregiver!"
The noise of the world often confuses our search for the sacred. In fact, every moment of life is pregnant with the holy.
Dr. McFague writes that "We are instruments of divine love." But, how are we to recognize this?
Is your work monotonous? What a natural way to feel.
Fortunately, there is a cure. You can offer the precious gift of your loving attention to the next person you see - and each one after that as well.
As you do this, your own life becomes a sacred enounter with the world.
Is the drive to work boring? What divinity lives along the road that you may have overlooked in all your previous trips?
Are you tired of your life? The first and most sacred encounter you can have is with yourself.
Love lives within. When you meet this energy, more than your work becomes sacred. Your life itself becomes a divine encounter.
-Erie Chapman
Photograph: Magnolia Study #2 - copyright erie chapman 2012
