In this solo devotional episode of the "Voices in My Head" podcast, host Rick Lee James reflects on his work as a hospital chaplain, drawing on Lawrence E. Holst’s 1985 book Hospital Ministry. He explores the paradoxical nature of hospitals—places of birth and death, celebration and grief—and argues that a chaplain’s primary calling is not to fix suffering but to bear witness and be present. Central to this calling is listening attentively to the "voices of suffering," discerning the lament, hope, and appeal within each story. James extends the principle of listening beyond the hospital walls, noting how movements like Black Lives Matter resonate because they give voice to collective pain, and he urges listeners to find Christ in every suffering person. He concludes with a prayer for better witness, a call for feedback, and an invitation for future speaking or musical engagements.
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Welcome back to Voices in My Head, once again from my studio in my car. This time I'm actually in a parking space. This is going to be more of a devotional than anything this week, but as you know, the title of this podcast, the name of it is Voices in My Head. The Rick Lee James Podcast. I usually call it that because it's an interview show. I usually have guests, but just right now, as I told you last week and the week before, the hospital schedule has changed and things are just so busy. But I still wanted to continue the podcast, let you know I'm not going anywhere. And I wanted to share today, talk about a voice in my head, and I hope this will be helpful to you. There's a book that came out several years ago. I think it actually came out in 1985. I believe they've done an updated edition just recently, but the one I have is from the '80s, and it's a book called Hospital Ministry. Again, I hope that you will find this to be something that's helpful and nourishing for your soul, even if you don't do anything even remotely close to hospital chaplaincy like I am doing. Health care chaplaincy, I realize, is its own kind of thing. And there's a lot of paradox in that, but in this book edited by Lawrence E. Holst, H-O-L-S-T, if any of you want to look it up sometime, it is a valuable book. And he speaks a lot into what I would call the ministry of presence, the ministry of witness. And what I mean by witness, again, as we've talked about in the past, I think we put so much emphasis on witness being something that we say and something that we tell someone, but the important work of a witness is to actually to see something, to take something in, because we have to be a witness of something. We have to look at something, and we help people by being a witness to their lives, what Anton Boyson calls a living human sacrifice. And in this book by Laurence Holst, Hospital Ministry, he talks about things like the paradox of hospitalization and how hospitals are a place of life and a place of death, how sometimes hospitals are a time of celebration, and then other times they're a time of remorse. And we live in those paradoxes. Things like healthy babies that are being born and broken bones that are mended and, and feared symptoms that are diagnosed to become benign, and when pains are still— those things are times when there is great rejoicing and celebration in hospitals. But then there's these other times that Sometimes babies are not born alive, or sometimes babies don't live very long, or they're deformed. Or there's other times when symptoms that you are fearing, that we are fearing, they are confirmed. And there's times when limbs are amputated, and there's times where there are injuries that happen, and there are scars that are going to be with us the rest of our lives. There are days when hopes are dashed. And especially there are times when God seems so distant to people in the hospitals. And so that's partly my work. I'm with people who are going through these extremes. I'm with people who are in great times of celebration, but also they are in great times of remorse. And people so often want answers when they come into the hospital, but Honestly, just like in life, just like even in scripture, there are so often more questions than there are answers. I always find it very interesting that Jesus so often will answer a question with another question to help us think and help us wonder. And in this book, just as we're talking about the paradoxes of what happens in a hospital, Holst starts to explain The role of a hospital chaplain, and it's a person that he describes as walking between two worlds, both the church and the hospital, these two different places which are very different places, quite honestly. And yet, what does a chaplain do that's different from what so often happens in a church? What's different from when I'm in a church and I'm leading worship music? And helping people sing praises to God. Well, so often what I do, it's said so well in this book, I just want to read some of it to you. The chaplain best serves the sufferer by listening to the voices of suffering. What is being voiced by the sufferer and the suffering? That's a great question to ask, by the way. When someone is suffering, we need to ask not just what they're suffering from, but what is being voiced by them? Again, that's just my commentary on what the author said. It's a good question to ask: What is the lament, the appeal, the anguish, the hope? These are most vital questions to the chaplain, and I would say to all of us, not just a chaplain, by the way. So getting back into what Holst writes, to listen carefully and attentively to those voices of suffering is the demanding challenge of the chaplain. And those voices will speak. The voices of suffering cannot for long be contained. Some voices will speak quietly and gently, others will cry out. Some voices will probe the mysteries, others will protest the injustice. Some voices will speak boldly, others tentatively. The tone and mood of the voice may be defiant or subdued, resigned or enraged, melancholic or courageous, angry or accepting, friendly or distrustful, or none of the above, or all of the above. The issue is not whether the voices of suffering will speak—they will—but whether those voices will be heard. And so he goes on to describe that the chaplain is not there to remove suffering. I want to say it in a more concise way. The chaplain is not there to fix. And pastors, if you're listening, that's not your job either. None of us are there to fix. We're not there to remove suffering so much as to help people find the deeper meaning for their lives in the suffering. And this is done in part by reassuring suffering people that the struggle is worth it, that meaning is ultimately to be found because God has deemed the sufferer to be meaningful. God has deemed the sufferer to be meaningful. So hospitals don't create these paradoxes and mysteries that I talked about earlier. They merely just focus them. Suffering takes away the illusion that we are infinite and that we are without limits. If we can hold back our desire and our tendency to want to fix things for people, if we can just be there to listen to the voices of the suffering, We might be amazed at the hope that can be instilled. We might be amazed at the stories we hear. We might even be amazed at what God will do through a person right before our very eyes. We are in and not of the hospital, so to speak. At best, chaplains, people like me, we're kind of in between the church and the hospital. But we are trying to be there to offer a ministry of presence. I think we could do much worse in this world and much worse as ministers than to offer a ministry of presence. I think that's where I'm going to leave it today. Maybe we'll talk a little bit more about that next week, but I hope you heard some good things to think about today. The voices of the suffering. It's so important that we listen. We are so quick in our society to not listen and to walk away. Culture wars tell us one voice is worth hearing and another is not worth hearing. Well, you ever wonder why there are such complaints in the world? Why so much outcry? Why a group like Black Lives Matter has such a presence in the world and resonates with so many people, for instance? Some will look at that group and find every reason in the world to say why they shouldn't listen to those voices because the person who founded it did this or that. But the fact is, it resonates because it's a shared experience of suffering. And when we take time not to judge, and when we take time not to be anxious, and when we take time to listen to their story, we will find Christ there. We will find Christ there. Where people are suffering, I guarantee you, you will find Christ. I see Christ looking back at me every single day in every single hospital bed. And the fact is, in every single person we encounter in this life, we see Christ. If we will have eyes to see and ears to hear, we can see in these living human documents, or what Paul calls living epistles, we will see Christ in each other. My prayer is that we will be better witnesses in the world and better witnesses of the world so that we may be present to the world. That's it for this week. Thank you for listening to Voices in My Head, and thank you for bearing with me in this hopefully brief time while we don't have guests. But hopefully you'll find some, some things in here that that are helpful to you in your walk. God bless you, much love to you, and may the Lord bless you and keep you. Just a reminder to all of you who are listening, I always appreciate good feedback, and if you want to do that by giving us 5 stars on iTunes or wherever it is you listen to this podcast, that would be great. Also, I'm hoping that in the next couple of months, I'll be ready to do some more concerts again. And if you are a part of an organization that might be interested in having me come in to sing or speak or just play some guitar, let's talk. RickLeeJames.com. Thank you so much for listening to Voices of Life.
