When God goes beyond Religion; The Lady on the Gurney A USAF Reserve Chaplain’s Story: “Ministry Happens”

A few years back, I was doing my reserve duty at my assigned air force base.

I was getting ready to head out for lunch when my boss, the Wing Chaplain said to me, “Hey, we just got s call from the base hospital.  There is someone over there in need of a chaplain.  Can you go over there?”

So I rushed over to the hospital, and up the floors to the OR.  I walked in and the doctors were standing there in their scrubs, pointing to me to go in the next room. 

I walked in and saw a lady on a gurney, all prepped for having surgery.  She was in distress.  She was very scared, anxious and nervous about having surgery. 

I did not know if she was in the Air Force, or a spouse, or a civilian employee...it did not matter.  She was in distress and I was there to try and help / minister to her. 

So I walked up to her, and took her hand.  We immediately connected.  I introduced myself, and she told me me she was very afraid.  We then began to do “breath prayer”.  This is where you breathe in good thoughts, the light and power of God, (visualizing it like golden warm light as you inhale) and breathe out your negative thoughts, visualizing them like black smoke as you exhale.  You let the fear leave your body, and with in inhale breath you take in God’s love and peace and let it flow throughout your bloodstream and body, feeling its healing and loving power.

We did this together for about ten minutes, and then she was very much calmed. 

When she told me she was ready, I walked out of the room and told the doctors ‘all OK’.  As I walked into the hallway, I felt this had been a very holy moment.  This is why I became a chaplain!

As I came back into the base Chapel, my boss asked me how it went.  I told him, and he said, “Oh, I forgot to tell you, she is Muslim”.

I paused.  Hmmm.  It did not seem to matter.    Sometimes, the Spirit works beyond religion, or religious differences that is.  This was one of those moments.  Ministry happens.

A couple three weeks later at the base Chapel, in walked a tall female sergeant.  She came up to me, gave me a big bear hug and said hello.  At first, I did not recognize her.  It was the lady on the gurney!

We talked, she was active duty.  She had converted to Islam as her husband was Muslim.  Over the next few years I would see her around the base and we always had a special connection. 

In the military, one of the great things about chaplaincy is the diversity of people we get to meet, work with, learn from, and serve / minister. 

And sometimes, God goes beyond religion (religious differences) and ministry just “happens”!

Adventures Teaching Religious Studies

Have you noticed that so many times when the subject of religion pops up in conversation, or is in the news, it is usually negative or has some negative connotation?

Usually it has to do with conflict, war, separation of “church and state”, politics, science verses religion, hypocrisy, violence done in the name of someone’s god, abuse of power...there is even a rock band called “Bad Religion”! 

At a certain large university’s Department of Religious Studies there is the “Center for Religion and Conflict”.    Many now proclaim they are ‘spiritual and not religious’.  It seems the majority of people these days do not feel the need for religion, or have any use for it. 

But for many, religion is a big part of their lives.  I think the majority, much like the media in American culture tends to over-emphasize the negative, especially in religion.  They forget the multitudes of GOOD things people have done because of their religious / spiritual beliefs and ways.  

What about helping others, the poor, the sick, the homeless?  How many schools, hospitals, care facilities, retirement homes, soup kitchens, etc. have been opened because of those living out their religious and spiritual beliefs?  Or those that work for peace, justice, helping the oppressed, the voiceless and so on?  Let us not forget about the beauty in music, the arts, architecture and their closeness with spirituality and religion.  

Religion has been around in all its forms since the beginning of time.  There is not one culture in the world or time in history that has not had some form of religion or spiritual practice!  And I will venture to say, it will always be so.   

I have been teaching Religious Studies and History classes at a large local community college for the past nine years.  The majority of the classes I have taught are Religions of the World, also known as “World Religions” which interestingly is one of the most popular classes on campus. 

I have also taught Native American Religions, Intro to Christianity, Intro to Islam and History of the Modern Middle East.  But the majority of my classes have been teaching World Religions. 

It has not been dull! 

The first year I started teaching, about two weeks into the semester, 9-11 happened.  Need I say more. 

I am about to begin my tenth year teaching at community college. Year after year....I get older....and the students (for the most part) all stay the same in age! 

Many of my students over the years have been from other countries, cultures, many years older than me.  Some have even had PhD’s.  Some are so intelligent and talented it blows me away.  Other times I wonder how they got through high school.  One student I had, he was an older student who finally was able to get himself in college, so smart, talented and kind, was killed mid semester.  Oh that just broke my heart. 

One semester, the students were doing their presentations, and one student went to the front of the class and opened up a bag and out he took was what looked like a large baggie of marijuana!!    I was sitting in the back of the class, the entire class turned their heads backward to look at me and see my reaction.  There was a brief moment of silence.  I asked him, “That is not real pot is it?”   “Oh no, this is really oregano, I am just using this as a visual aid.  I am doing my presentation on Rastafarianism!!”

I breathed a sigh of relief. 

Another time, I think it was my first year teaching I had a student go up to the chalk board and he wrote in Arabic the first verse of the Qur’an’s surahs (chapters) and many a Muslim prayer, the ‘Bismillah” بسم الله it is called.  (In the name of God, the most merciful, the most kind.)  I was so taken by this I wanted to learn Arabic. 

I was asked the following year to be the faculty advisor for the Muslim Student Organization.  I am not Muslim, and I am female.  Would this be OK?  The students were fine with that.  And so I attended their meetings, getting to know some young Muslims. They were very friendly, and I remember one young man said to me ‘I just want people to know that not not all Muslims wear grungy beards and want to fly airplanes into buildings.’  

I began to take classes at the local university in Arabic and more classes in Islamic Studies.    My first semester of Arabic, our instructor said in his heavy accent "Ahdabik vedi eezy".    Well, I can tell you, Arabic is not very easy....!


I really learned a lot and got to know some very interesting people taking these classes.  I wound up taking four semester of Arabic and a cultural study tour to Jordan one summer for six weeks. 

The following year, I developed a new class, Intro to Islam.   I still teach it to this day. 

I do love teaching and I do love the students.  I love to learn.  Little do many students realize, I am learning many times right along with them, just from a different perspective!  It keeps me fresh, and keeps me young at heart!

I also enjoy watching them learn.  But not just learn the material, but learn.  You see, I teach for head and heart  (intellect and spirit). 

I also teach so we can better understand each other (different cultures, ways of thought).  For when people do not understand each other, they easily become ‘the other’.  The result usually is usually fear.  And this can easily result in violence.   The better we all understand each other, the better chance we have of respecting each other and getting along.  

So, in many ways, I teach for the hope of peace. 

The Power of Place

Today I drove up the “Million Dollar Highway” in Colorado from Durango to Ouray.  The mountains were just breathtakingly beautiful.    Such magnificence!     I was driving very carefully, it is a narrow, winding, two lane road, with high cliffs and no guard rails! 

As I drove, I noticed (I felt) how some mountains have such power, such presence.  Some more than others.  And I am not talking about how beautiful they are or how big. 

Have you ever felt this?

Many years ago I was in San Francisco and my friends and I rented bicycles.  I went riding off on my own, winding up on the Pacific coast, up a trail that was on the mouth of the Bay, with a magnificent view of the Golden Gate Bridge.  I stopped to just look at the view.  The cool air felt so wonderful, and I could hear the fog horns going off out at sea. 

I was on the edge of a cliff that overlooked the ocean, the waves crashing intensely on the rocks below.   I saw one area where the cliff jutted out, like an upside down “V”.  I went out to the edge of it, to the tip of the “V”.    I looked at it all, the waves crashing below, the trees that stretched out sort of sideways of the walls of the cliff and wind, the wind as it blew, the ocean so large and seemingly endless and the sun shimmering on us.  

It was then I felt the beauty.  But it was more than beauty.  I felt the power and presence of this place.  It was deeper than what I was physically seeing, hearing and feeling.  It was a very special moment, extraordinary! 

It was a sacramental moment.

A year or so later I brought a  friend there. I did not tell him what this place was, or what had happened to me.  I told him to stand near the edge of the cliff for a moment. 

He stood there for about 20 seconds and then stepped back, taking  a breath.  I could tell he felt something, he looked a little startled.  He looked at me, “What is this place?”

One more time, I brought another person there.   I did not tell her about this place, just took her there and told her to stand near the edge of the cliff and look out over the ocean.

She lifted up her arms to feel the wind and smiled.  She was taking it all in.  She looked at me after a few moments, her eyes very large.  “This is wonderful!” she said.  “What a wonderful place!”

The years went by, and I would visit it from time to time.  In time, the magic of it seemed to fade.  But I know it was not the place.  It was my perception, it was I that had changed in time.  

The cliff’s edge became ‘just’ a beautiful place.  It became ordinarily beautiful.  And there was a peacefulness to this.

Then I understood the old Zen Buddhist saying;  (I paraphrase)

“When I first began my spiritual journey, I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters. Further along the journey, when I arrived at a more intimate, deeper knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not just mountains, and waters are not just waters. But even further along the spiritual journey, I am at rest. For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters.”

Now and then...the veil lifts for us...and we get to “see” the world in new way, feel the mystery and its aliveness...its sacredness...and it is beyond words and it is wonderful!  

And we can feel that some mountains are more "awake" than others. 

Or...is it us?