In this solo episode of the Voices In My Head podcast, host Rick Lee James celebrates several personal and professional milestones. He begins by expressing gratitude for recent guests—Matt Lewis, author of Filthy Rich Politicians, and chaplain Matt Sanders, author of Let God Love You—highlighting how their work has influenced his own ministry. Rick then marks the day of his final Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) class, describing the final evaluation process, the growth he’s experienced, and a shift in his ministerial focus from “seeing Jesus in me” to “seeing Jesus in others and the world.” He shares a brief anecdote about receiving a hospital pager during the recording, underscoring his ongoing chaplain work. Looking ahead, he outlines his plans to complete a Master of Arts in Healthcare Chaplaincy at Loyola Chicago’s Institute of Pastoral Studies, pursue board certification, and continue his podcast (now at episode 525). He also announces an upcoming original song slated for release around August 18. Throughout, Rick’s tone is conversational, grateful, and encouraging, inviting listeners to take steps when they feel stuck and to engage with his past episodes and online presence.
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Welcome back to Voices in My Head. As always, I'm your host, Rick Lee James, and I'm so grateful that you're here with us for another episode today. You know, the last couple of weeks have been great with some wonderful guests. It was great to have Matt Lewis on. His new book is fantastic, Filthy Rich Politicians. I highly recommend it. I hope everybody will check that out. Matt's a great guy. You've probably seen him on You name it, turn on whatever news network he's lately been on. He's usually on there as commentary, but right now he's promoting his book. I saw him on Jake Tapper a couple weeks ago, which was a pretty big deal for him. He was just grinning ear to ear. I said, "Dude, you look so happy." So it was so good to see success. I know Matt has done a lot, but this book I think is going to take him to the next level. So I'm grateful that we had him on this show and just proud of him and his work. And then to have another Matt. Last week, Matt Sanders, from a completely different realm, chaplaincy, I guess I would call him kind of a mentor from afar because his writing, his books, I use them every day and some part of what he has taught through his writing and I have learned and taken in as I do my work as a chaplain, it's so important to me. So last week's episode 524, might have been my favorite episode of Voices in My Head, just personally. It was so good to meet him and just get to know his heart even more as a person of faith and as a chaplain and someone who really truly offers a ministry of presence. So if you didn't get a chance to listen to that last week, I hope you'll give it a listen because it's really worth your time. His new book, Let God Love You, It just says it all. And if there's any way that I try to approach my ministry as a chaplain, now as a minister, as a music pastor, the message is so simple and it's summed up so well just in the title of that book. Just let God love you. Just let God love you. It's as simple as that. Well, today I wanted to record this short episode by myself because When this episode releases, the day it releases, August 2nd, I will be in my final class of CPE. That is Clinical Pastoral Education. We will be presenting our final evaluations, and this is where we really, we self-evaluate, we evaluate our peers, we evaluate the program, and we really show our competencies, what we've learned, what all of this has come to. So this journey began for me. Oh, there goes my pager. You probably know I'm in my car. I'm on my way to the hospital right now. Um, sorry about that. Let me try to stop the pager if I can. And, uh, anyway, I guess that was appropriate that I'm having a page come through for the hospital while I talk about my last day of CPE. It's not my last day working at the hospital. This particular assignment goes through August 25th, but When you're listening to this, I will be in my last day of class and will be doing my final presentation of a paper I wrote. I think, gosh, I think it's 18 to 20— I know it's 20 pages long. It was supposed to be 8 to 10. I got it down to 20. So you can pray for me as I do that. But this has been quite an amazing journey, and for me to be able to release a podcast on the day, which is the final day of CPE. It's been holy time, it's been good time, it's been growing time for me, and I can't say it enough that I feel like a different person than when I began. And I'm so grateful for the process of Clinical Pastoral Education, what it has taught me about being a minister. My focus has changed. If you listen to me before, my focus is now not so much on how can people see Jesus in me. My focus is how do I see Jesus in the person in front of me? How do I see Jesus in the world around me? How do I see Jesus in all and through all? And that has made so much difference in the ministry of presence. Being present, as Matt Sanders says, present to self, present to the presence, meaning the holy divine presence, so that we can then be present to others and then help others to be present to the Presence. And that has been, for me, uh, what sums up my time in Clinical Pastoral Education. This is gonna be a short but sweet episode, but if you have been struggling with something in your life, maybe a calling, maybe it was something God is calling you to do, and you're stuck, I encourage you to just take whatever step you need to take to get unstuck. That is what CPE has shown me, taking that huge step. I'm still in the midst of my education, it's just not the CPE education part anymore. At the end of August, speaking of being unstuck, I'll be back in Loyola again, Loyola Chicago and the Institute of Pastoral Studies, finishing my Master of Arts in Healthcare Chaplaincy. Hoping it won't be more than a year and a half and I'll be finished with that degree and heading on to hopefully board certification as a chaplain. But it's been a wonderful journey, and I just wanted to commemorate the day by releasing a podcast. I'm grateful that for the most part I've been able to keep the podcast going. Today is 525 episodes, and that, that seems like no little thing to me. And in the midst of a long drive to work and back from work every day, doing long days in the hospital, so many papers to write, so much reflection, And I am just grateful for this whole process. Gratitude is the song of my heart right now. So I'm also grateful for you. Thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. Gonna have to go now. As you've heard, I've already received a page and I gotta get on with the day here at the hospital. But thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. More guests coming soon. I hope you enjoyed the last two that we had. If you hadn't had a chance to listen to Matt Lewis or Matt Sanders, go back and listen to those. Those are great episodes. So until next time, thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. God bless you. And thank you for listening to Voices in My Head. You can find out more about me on my website at rickleejames.com. You can go to my Twitter— well, I guess it's not Twitter anymore, whatever we're calling it, X, X the Owl, I don't know what we're gonna call it— uh, @rickleejames. Rick Lee James, also @MrRogersSay, where I bring Mr. Rogers quotes every day. Just look up Rick Lee James on Google, you'll find every place I'm at. And guess what? Little surprise at the end. Have a new song coming out this month, I think on August 18th if all goes well. So look forward to sharing that with you. Thank you for listening to Voices in My Head.
