I was filled with joy when I read that the Washington Monument was reopened yesterday following damage from the earthquake in 2011.  I still remember where I was when the earthquake was felt.  I was in Cumberland Maryland making a patient visit in a room very near the elevators.  When the building shook I first thought it was an elevator problem.  That surprised me since our building was only 2 years old.  It did not take long with all the TV sets in the patient rooms for me to learn what happened was on a far larger scale than I imagined.  Until the earthquake I had not thought about the fact that the monument is made with limestone instead of harder substance like granite.  The limestone was so brittle it could not withstand the tremors.

That reminded me of some of my early visits as a Chaplain where I was the “limestone chaplain” insecure of myself and easily confused when something happened during a visit that I did not expect.  Now I think I have transitioned to a “granite chaplain”.  I know that anything, especially the unexpected, can happen in any visit.  Rather than be scared when things surprise I lean on my faith and clarity of purpose that keeps me in chaplaincy.

I remember one visit where two visitors were with the patient.  One visitor thought the patient was getting better and the other visitor thought the patient was getting worse.  Trying to learn background information I asked what I thought was a simple question, “What prognosis are the physicians giving you?”  The reply was unexpected, both visitors said, “You can’t believe a thing these doctors tell you!”  That comment gave me no background on what the expected medical outcome was. It did tell me there was doubt in the minds of everyone in the room about what would happen.  I paused before I responded and then turned to the patient and said, “Your visitors have told me how they see your health changing, how do you see it?”  The patient surprised me and the people who were visiting when she said, “Those two have never agreed on a thing.  If they agreed I would know I was dying because they would be trying to comfort me by acting out of character.  I will get better in time, I trust my physician and I have my whole church praying for me.  A Mass has been said for me and I have people in at least 45 states and several countries praying for me.”  I learned from that visit the patient had confidence and also that she was not thrown for a loop by the discussion her visitors were having so why should I be thrown for a loop by it?

We had several more visits and even though I did not see the people visiting her again, the patient would laugh when she would remember the confused look I had on my face during the first visit.  Now that I look back on that I see that by being honest, showing my doubt, I revealed my humanity to the patient in a way that was comforting to her.  Fortunately I can say I had a moment as “granite chaplain” instead of a “limestone chaplain” who was crushed by two mutually opposing opinions.

John Wesley said, “Preach faith until you have it, then preach faith because you have it.”  Visiting with confidence is perhaps the chaplains corollary to the advice Wesley gave his preachers in the 1700’s.  It is still good advice today!