NCSC - Day 9 Pastoral Care

In a pastoral class I took a few years ago, we discussed the need to unpack our own baggage so that we can deal with it before providing pastoral care to others. It made sense then as it does now. When you hear someone talking about something that triggers things in you, if you have not dealt with them, it will hinder your ability to help the person.

So it is even more true that when chaplains are sent into combat zones and the enemy is firing, that our baggage will bubble to the surface while we are supposed to be providing counseling to these warriors. (The military has begun to use the word 'warrior' rather than soldier, sailor, troop...) These warriors are turning to us to "feed off our inner peace." If we are able to keep it together, then the warrior will look at us as the dugma, the example.

Think about this. If Deborah was scared and it showed on her face, Barak and the troops would have never followed her into battle. Instead, she was the calm that they saw and took it upon themselves to emulate. But the only way to get to that point, is to work through our baggage beforehand.

I am no exception. I have had to work through my PTSD from 9/11 and losing colleagues, the guilt of surviving and then feeling the burden of keeping silent so that I continued to give off the appearance of being unfazed. I put in the work and continue to work on it and today drilled it home that all that work will keep me in good stead if I am in Afghanistan for Rosh Hashannah.