My most meaningful educational experience

My experience with higher education and its relationship to religion has been less than encouraging as a Christian.  Many involved in higher education find the topic of religion in an educational discourse offensive.  They seem to think that religion is for those who are unlearned and react often harshly to any mention of God.

This was delightfully not the case during my Wednesday night class at UC Berkeley two weeks ago.  The class is in interdisciplinary elder care.  I've had the opportunity in this class to interact with students and professors in other areas of healthcare such as optometry, social work and nutrition.  I've learned what their profession's values are in their own words.  It has been a great experience overall but the most powerful experience centered around the field of chaplaincy.  We had a chaplain who went to a Baptist Seminary explain to us his role as part of an interdisciplinary team and answer all of or burning questions.

First, the chaplain, named Peter, was very accessible.  I somehow formed the idea in my growing years that church leaders were somehow different then me and I should act a certain way around them.  This idea was contradicted when my brother became a youth minister and Peter was further evidence that pastors are in fact real people.  He had a wonderful sense of humor (Jerry Springer kept coming up in the course of the class) and was very grounded (when a student asked how he dealt with the heavy nature of his job he unashamedly answered that he has a spiritual mentor he meets with regularly, a very supportive network of chaplains and a therapist he sees on a regular basis).  What was particularly freeing and wonderful about the class was that it made Christianity an academic subject.  He explained the three modalities he uses as a chaplain to meet patient's needs and explained that he must constantly assess which modality he is using and to what extent.  As an OT, I also must constantly assess my choices in treatment and adjust to meet the patient's needs.  There is a common ground in the two professions.  This common ground helps us work together on a team and I love the idea of working closely with chaplains.  Because the idea of chaplaincy is really quite amazing; a chaplain will, without bias, meet the spiritual needs of patients.  Often, this means the chaplain must help patients work through spiritual questions about a faith that may be very different from their own.  This is a great burden.  Peter spoke about how he struggled when he first became a chaplain because part of his Baptist training was in ministering to others and sharing his faith in the hopes of bringing people into the Baptist faith.  He wrestled with having to lay down this part of his seminary training as a chaplain.  He came to the conclusion that God will still create opportunities for him to share his faith, even if its not with every patient.  he was not beaten down by this difficult aspect of his job, he still had hope that he would minister to others.

Another very important factor in making this class so meaningful was my classmates.  They were very open to the discussion and had a real interest in the experience of a chaplain.  They helped create an environment where it was safe to talk about religion, to talk about God.  And Peter honestly told us about his experiences.  It was an incredible sharing of information.  I gained so much because my classmates were willing to quiet their own ideas and beliefs about religion.  It never turned into an argument, everyone was open to learn.  That openness and honesty was prevalent for the entire class time.  When I walked out I had a smile on my face and told my friend Chelsey "that was the coolest class I think I've ever been to".  Most importantly I was able to connect two parts of myself, my life as a student pursing higher education and my spiritual life as a Christian. Those two had never been connected before.  They may never be connected in that same way again.  However, I will never forget the way in which they can connect and the clarity and truth I felt during my class with a chaplain.