Journal of Sacred Work

Days 119-123 – Twenty Milligrams of Love?

   Medicine loves metrics. Twenty milligrams of this drug and ten cubic centimeters of that one dominate treatments and the lives of those who administer them.

   Surgeons calculate to the millimeter. Accountants determine the numbers needed to meet budgets. Executives review patient satisfaction scores. 

   Amid this world of measurement there are many who cannot fathom the value of life's most important energy: Love. For example, in my years of leadership I have been challenged repeatedly to explain the role of compassion.

  Child peeking  Loving care is nice, many say, but how does it fit with a business strategy? One board member once asked me: If you can't measure it, how can it matter?  

   I asked him if he loved his children.

   "Of course," he said.

   "How much do you love them?" I continued.

    "A lot."

   "Can you measure that?" I asked.

   "Of course not," he said. 

   What you cannot measure matters most.

   The peeking child delivers a dose of joy. He carries no hypodermic. 

   How many milligrams of love do you want for your child as she awaits chemotherapy?  How many cubic centimeters of kindness do you wish for your mother the night before surgery? How many liters of compassion causes a patient to love their hospital experience?

   Radical Loving Care calls caregivers to master the hard work of soft skills. True leaders know how to harness Love's energy to transform the medical experience into a sacred encounter. They understand that our humanity thrives in the land beyond measure. 

   Emerson wrote, "In silence we must wrap much of our life, because it is too fine for speech."

   In healing you must let Love flow, because she is too beautiful for calculations.  

-Erie Chapman

Photograph – Erie Chapman

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9 responses to “Days 119-123 – Twenty Milligrams of Love?”

  1. Cheri Cancelliere Avatar
    Cheri Cancelliere

    How wonderful, Erie! As I ponder your words, I see that love, like everything that has eternal value, is infinite and beyond measure. In today’s world, so many want to reduce love, relationships, caregiving, and even our most profound experiences to an item on a checklist…something that can be done and over with. Radical Loving Care is boundless, sacrificial, priceless and keeps giving and giving, loving and loving, growing and transforming, until at last we become like the Author and Creator of love. Thank you for blessing my day by expressing the indefinable beauty of love. Words are inadequate for the gratitude I feel for the work you are doing!

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  2. ~liz Wessel Avatar
    ~liz Wessel

    I often listen for God to speak to me through the voice of a friend, Today’s message rings especially true. Thank you, Erie.
    P.S. Sweet photo!

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  3. Jonathan Ang Avatar
    Jonathan Ang

    When I was in nursing school, a thought came across me about the possibility of my fellow classmates being my nurse if I got sick. I realized that the nursing students I first picked were not necessarily those with the highest grades in our classes. As you have mentioned in your journal, not everything can be measured… and what matters most are those that you can not. Thank you for the reminder.

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  4. sbeng Avatar
    sbeng

    Erie: Love cannot be measured when one sees the cute boy peeking at you in the photo. That must be your grandson!. What I treasure most as a home care nurse was the ability to spend time with the patients and their relatives. Besides seeing to the frequency and the number of milligrams of medications the patient takes or administering the IV medication, my staff and I have the time to listen to the patient and their family members express their concerns regarding the patient’s diagnosis, outcome and management. There were sorrows/joy expressed. They feel they have the support from the Visiting Nurse team. Love flows, comfort and healing takes place. The saying goes “Love knows no measure”

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  5. Padre David Poedel Avatar
    Padre David Poedel

    Thank you! I am a parish pastor who also teaches Radical Loving Care at Grand Canyon University. Today after Bible class, Holy Eucharist, and our second service made up of a community of refugees from a war-torn African nation, I knew I needed to stop and see Scott and Evelyn. Scott is in a hospice dying; his wife is a brave soul who puts on a brave front. Truth be told, I was exhausted, my own chronic pain was starting to affect my normally sunny mood and ways….but I knew I needed to visit.
    What’s ironically funny is that I wondered how much empathy and love I needed right now. Then I came home and decided to watch the Celebration video your organization produced…which I bought on Amazon last week to “see” who you were and how this wonderful model emerged from your own heart. The visit went well, but I still wondered how I did it. I watched your videos, enjoyed them immensely, and decided to come here to see what was going on. Oh yes, the Holy Spirit directed me here, but praise God, I didn’t resist as I am so capable of doing.
    This meditation put it together for me….today….right now. How much love? God doesn’t dispense love in milligrams or liters, but in His Blood! That’s love! Thank you again!

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  6. Erie Chapman Foundation Avatar
    Erie Chapman Foundation

    Thank you so much, Padre. I am very grateful for your engagement with this work. Thank you for following this and for using my teachings in yours. As you know, my teachings are ground in God’s Love – a mystery you clearly appreciate!

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  7. Erie Chapman Foundation Avatar
    Erie Chapman Foundation

    Hope this message reaches you directly, Padre.

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  8. Padre David Poedel Avatar
    Padre David Poedel

    Indeed, as a Lutheran of the evangelical catholic flavor, I am totally into God’s grace, mercy, love and unconditional love, offered freely for the sake of Christ and His work on the Cross.
    Teaching this to RN’s is a blast because they, at some level, get it already. I get to fine-tune it with them.
    More challenging to me is teaching this to undergraduates on campus, where every health science student must take the course (though not my sections, I am an Adjunct Prof of Theology). In a full-course load, this 4 credit class is but one of many, so there are fewer where I see it “click” when they get it. Unlike previous generations of students (I taught full-time for 30 years in EMS and Anatomy & Physiology) who loved to hear stories of how I used the information I was requiring them to know, the current generation has learned, perhaps through media violence, to put everything “out there” and not internalize much. I know they are internalizing it at some level and will likely get it later in their life and career, I find it more frustrating. My major tactic is to apply God’s unconditional love towards them in the course in my relationships between student and professor. It blows them away because I don’t let them off the hook with their assignments, but I apply things like unconditional acceptance instead of listening to made up excuses as to why they didn’t do their assignments. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit works my stuff through them for the softening of their hearts.
    Sorry this went so long. Thanks for everything. My next step is to meet with the folks at Mercy Gilbert to see it in action. The chaplain over that region was an old student! Small world.
    God bless you for your awesome work. I am honored to be a small contributor to it’s growth.

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  9. Erie Chapman Foundation Avatar
    Erie Chapman Foundation

    Deep thanks to you again, Padre. It is a gift for you to contribute to this work and to help all caregivers who come to this site.

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