By His Grace Church

Who is Pastor/​Chaplain Grace

The Jour­ney

I can define my life as an impro­vised work in process. Where I am at this moment in my life is not my planned des­ti­na­tion. It can be said that I have had many “incar­na­tions” in this life. There have been many peo­ple, places and phases in my life that were impor­tant at dif­fer­ent stages in my life. I am still a stu­dent of spir­i­tual awak­en­ing, who tries to live in an atti­tude of Grat­i­tude. I am a trav­eler. If any­one is inter­ested I have made some copies of my vita, both edu­ca­tional and voca­tional journeys.

As a trav­eler I have cho­sen to place myself at the dis­posal of the mys­ter­ies of life. The trav­eler has learned to con­tinue in faith, love and self-​honor on her path, look­ing at every­thing in ways the trav­eler can honor who they were in times past and who they may yet become.

Attend­ing a vari­ety of churches and hav­ing friends of dif­fer­ent faith back­grounds, vol­un­teer­ing in home­less shel­ters and soup kitchens or liv­ing in a co-​op or a tent. God has used every expe­ri­ence to lead me into a voca­tion to serve oth­ers. All the twists and turns and by-​ways have cre­ated a jour­ney toward God. I feel that my var­ied past will enable me to com­mu­ni­cate with a wide vari­ety of peo­ple and inter­act in many sit­u­a­tions. I believe that the min­istry of being a Chap­lain is one that best sup­ports my gifts and calling.

As the trav­eler I learned to praise the Lord as much for a closed door as an open door. If He did not close the wrong door the trav­eler would never find the right door. When one door closes, it forces the trav­eler to change course. Ill­ness, loss of job, death, mov­ing, all are doors clos­ing and oth­ers open. Then finally the right door opens and the trav­eler walks right into a bless­ing. Psalm 37:23 [show]Psalm 37:23 [23]The steps of a man are estab­lished by the LORD, when he delights in his way;
 “the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.”

In YOUR GOD IS TOO SAFE by Mark Buchanan, he describes Jesus as “He went here, He went there, moved by seem­ing whim, chance, need, sec­ond thought and after­thought, and some inward tug of holy instinct. His zigzag­ging jour­ney was any­thing but the anx­ious rush­ing about that char­ac­ter­izes our own living.” This is a book about not get­ting stuck, in your life or in your religion.

The sacred jour­ney itself may become more impor­tant than the end­ing. The trav­eler expe­ri­ences hav­ing to walk in faith and liv­ing in the ques­tion, in the now, hav­ing the strength and the power to move for­ward even when she has no clue what the out­come may be, hav­ing the patience to roll with the grand plan God has mapped out, that the trav­eler also creates.

The unknown becomes larger than the known. The more you learn, the more you know you don’t know. It was dur­ing some of the tough­est times, through faith, and through God that the great­est expe­ri­ences and tri­umphs have occurred.
The trav­eler in her search may come to real­ize that what seemed to be real­ity was only a glimpse of such. The more the trav­eler sees, feels and expe­ri­ences affects how this “real­ity” is lived. My grand­mother used to say “All in good time.” Perhaps what she really meant was “All in God’s time.”

It is on this jour­ney that I answered the call to learn and become a Chaplain.

There is an impor­tant dif­fer­ence between a career and a call­ing. A career seems to have a goal, a well-​marked course and an expected out­come. I was going to be a teacher and a therapist.

A voca­tion or call­ing is dif­fer­ent. The empha­sis is not on fol­low­ing a pre-​determined path but to respond­ing to a voice – God’s call.This is walk­ing by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthian 5:7)

There is the notion that God never calls us to do what we are not pre­pared to do. (1Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 5:24 [show]1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 5:24 [24]He who calls you is faith­ful; he will surely do it. (ESV)
). This is a lit­tle scary; as life is always clearer through the rear-​view mir­ror than though the wind­shield. (Hind­sight is always 20 – 20) Some­times I think that God trusts me too much. Yet, I know that there is noth­ing that God and I together can not han­dle if I will just let go.

The call to be a Chris­t­ian:
We are called to serve God. We are in a rela­tion­ship with God. He is the pot­ter, we are the clay. (Isa­iah 64:8 [show]Isa­iah 64:8 [8]But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our pot­ter; we are all the work of your hand.
), Jesus is the vine, we are the branches. (Mark 3:14 [show]Mark 3:14 [14]And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apos­tles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach (ESV)
.)

This call started inward in my heart and mind and has moved out­ward in my actions. My mas­sage busi­ness card showed Heart to Hands to God. I believe that the body­work that I do is a Gift from God, and as a Chap­lain the work of Hands of Bless­ing will grow.

I believe that mas­sage is an act of prayer and it is an act of com­pas­sion. By com­pas­sion, I mean the desire to be present and receive the suf­fer­ing of another. I have offered this sacred touch that com­bines the “lay­ing on of hands and the anoint­ing with oil” that rev­er­ences the body and hon­ors the human per­son as a man­i­fes­ta­tion of God.

The art of anoint­ing lets the per­son know that they have value. This has shown itself to be true when I have offered Hands of Bless­ing­Mas­sage at the soup kitchen in Glen­wood. Some of the home­less smell, have sores, have lice, are weak, some are tough and gruff; for the most part they have been shunned by soci­ety. Dur­ing the mas­sage I stop smelling the sores and dirt and hear a sigh as the per­son sur­ren­ders to the heal­ing power of uncon­di­tional care. Romans 12:9 [show]Romans 12:9 Marks of the True Chris­t­ian [9]Let love be gen­uine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. (ESV)
 “Don’t just pre­tend that you love oth­ers. Really love them…Love each other with gen­uine affec­tion and take delight in hon­or­ing each other.”

The secret call
The voice that pesters and gives deep inner nudges to do more. The intan­gi­ble sense that God is call­ing me to become a Chap­lain as a voca­tion and a dis­con­tent with other forms of work.
This call came not with fire or flash of light­ning. It has been in the form of a dia­logue, an ongo­ing con­ver­sa­tion with God that lasts through­out my day and life. God con­tin­ues to invite me to con­sider His inten­tions for my ener­gies. To use the gifts He has bestowed upon me to be used for His greater good. The Voice tells me to “do jus­tice, love kind­ness, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8 [show]Micah 6:8 [8]He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do jus­tice, and to love kindness,(1) and to walk humbly with your God? Foot­notes 1. [6:8] Or ‘stead­fast love’
) As Sojourner Truth said “I talk to God, and God talks to me.”

Ger­ald G. May in The Dark Night of the Soul describes what I believe: “The divine pres­ence doesn’t intend us to suf­fer, but is insteadwith us in all the expe­ri­ences of life, in both suf­fer­ing and joy. And that pres­ence is always invit­ing us toward greater free­dom and love.”

The eccle­si­as­ti­cal call.
The com­mu­nity of The Con­gre­ga­tional Church of the Val­ley had rec­og­nized that I have a call to serve. The church had called on me to develop my gifts and assist our Min­is­ter. I am called for prayers, hos­pi­tal and nurs­ing home vis­its, to attend Con­fer­ence meet­ings and rep­re­sent the small church; giv­ing the children’s ser­mon and to serve as the Sub­sti­tute minister.

After much prayer and soul-​searching, read­ing and ask­ing, ques­tions I decided that this is the path I am called to be on.

Chap­lain Min­istry Is…
Lis­ten­ing, when you’d rather fix the prob­lem.
Search­ing for the joy, when it’s eas­ier to say “it’s not fair.“
Help­ing, when you feel like you’re the one that needs the help.
Telling God, “use me,” when you’d rather ask to be res­cued.
Encour­ag­ing, even when you don’t under­stand God’s rea­son­ing.
Hug­ging when it feels awk­ward.
Say­ing, “let’s pray right now,” instead of “I’ll pray for you.“
Serv­ing, when you doubt you have any­thing left to give.
Com­fort­ing, by being the flicker of light in oth­ers’ dark cav­erns.
[Author unknown]
Now a new Church fam­ily is call­ing on me to develop the gifts that God has given.

1 Thes­sa­lon­ian 5:1 So encour­age each other and build each other up…”

My prayer life is strength­ened when I pray with and for oth­ers. Kierkegaard says “Prayer does not change God, but it changes the one that offers it.”

Thomas Aquinas fol­lows suit with “By prayer man ren­ders him­self capa­ble of receiving.”

Goethe speaks to the pas­toral soul: “Do you not see God? By every quiet spring, under every blos­som­ing tree he meets me in the warmth of his love.”
Prayer has allowed and ener­gized me to step forth into the unknown with a known God.

Life is not a clear straight path, it is more like step­ping­stones that enable us to change course and direc­tion and still stay on the God given path.

Life is a mys­tery that God has given to us.
With the twists and turns my own life has taken I am able to min­is­ter to the “whole per­son’ who must be cared for, and no one aspect of the per­son can be treated in iso­la­tion. In a Hos­pi­tal the Chap­lain cares for the emo­tional, spir­i­tual and men­tal well being of the per­son as oth­ers care for the phys­i­cal. And yet some­times the Chap­lain is the per­son to get a glass of water for the patient. In the com­mu­nity the Chap­lain is also to care and min­is­ter to the Whole person.

It is impor­tant to accept a per­son wher­ever they are on their Spir­i­tual Jour­ney. As a Chap­lain to offer prayer, a bless­ing, anoint­ing of oil, Bible or other sacred text read­ing as will offer them hope, to help the client have their spir­i­tual needs met. As a Chap­lain I strive to show the uncon­di­tional love of Jesus Christ to those in need. “Be com­pas­sion­ate as your Father is com­pas­sion­ate.” (Luke 6:36 [show]Luke 6:36 [36]Be mer­ci­ful, even as your Father is mer­ci­ful. (ESV)
)

Life is confusing.

We can’t take for granted that every­thing will be the same tomor­row as it is today.

There are hur­ri­canes, earth­quakes and other nat­ural and human-​made dis­as­ters that can wipe out our sense of secu­rity on a whim, in an instant.

We can’t be sure that we — or those we love — will be healthy and alive tomorrow.

We can’t pre­sume good faith of others.

We can’t trust that an adult will take good care of a lost child.

We can’t even guess whether the dri­ver on the road next to us is nor­mal, healthy, on drugs or drunk.

There is NOTHING that we can be entirely sure of. NOTHING!

Not things, not finances, not cir­cum­stances, not peo­ple, not even feel­ings.
JUST THE LOVE OF GOD.

How then is one to cre­ate and main­tain a degree of bal­ance, cer­tainty, or power within one­self? By neces­sity, an indi­vid­ual power/​energy cen­ter HAS TO BE based on faith and assumption.

We have to assume that tomor­row will be at least some­what sim­i­lar to today.

We have to assume that we have at least some power, abil­ity and ade­quacy to deal with chal­lenge and sur­vive what­ever may come our way.

With­out the belief in SOME cer­tain­ties and with­out SOME per­ma­nent val­ues we’d be pas­sive like snowflakes shoved around by chance.

The only sense of per­ma­nence avail­able to us is faith.

Faith takes many forms whichever you choose, faith has the capac­ity to become your com­pass in life; the one thing that never fails. 1 John 4:10 [show]1 John 4:10 [10]In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the pro­pi­ti­a­tion for our sins. (ESV)
 “This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us…”

As a Chap­lain I can help peo­ple to explore how they wish to han­dle life’s storms.

The jour­ney con­tin­ues. I have moved to Arkansas to open a small resort with my mother.
The Bib­li­cal passage: “When ever two or more are gath­ered, I am there.” describes for me the new Church, the Gath­er­ing of Friends or what­ever we may be called. The local Church is a reminder that we are not alone. The local church helps to build and develop the gifts of the com­mu­nity and its members.

Peace and Bless­ings
Chap­lain Grace Michelle Hag­gart
Let us pray: Dear Lord, help us to min­is­ter and to build the gifts you have given each of us to the glory and in the Bless­ings of Your Love.

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