I'll Never Forget It

"There's a first time for everything," so the saying goes. This past Monday, Sept. 29th, I had another first opportunity. Yesterday, for the first time, I conducted a funeral. Recently, a patient whom I have been seeing in the hospital, passed away. For confidentiality purposes I will withhold his name. During his time in the hospital I had the pleasure of building a relationship with his wife and family. The day following his death the family honored me by requesting that I preside over his funeral. What a compliment!

Problem: I've never done a funeral before.

After a weekend of calling those ministers wiser and more experienced than me and speaking for long periods of time with the family, I stepped into my first funeral home pulpit.

The experience was a blessing. I've heard pastors say, "I'd rather do a funeral than a wedding." I've never done a wedding, but I've been around a few. And there is a qualitative difference between the two scenes. Mostly, I appreciated very much the genuine atmosphere around the funeral, and the openness to their feelings that people displayed.

The experience helped me to re-focus on the eschatological promises of God. We know that God is a great promiser and a perfect healer. And we can rest easy in the strong promise that this man doesn't need anymore healing. He doesn't need anything this world has to offer. This is the comfort that we can have at a time of such sorrow.

Due to the deceased's service in the Army, it was a full military funeral including full uniform pall bearers, a bag piper, and a 21 gun solute. For me the most intense moment was when the soldiers folded the flag for his wife. Out of respect and honor for their fallen countrymen they made sure the flag was perfect before the presentation.

I'll never forget this first experience. It was a moving experience as well as an honor. I look forward to the next time I have the opportunity to be blessed by offering a blessing for those hurting. I wish the family well, and may he rest in peace.

I TUBE, DO YOU TUBE?

Like many others I have recently been frustrated with the lack of content on one of the internet's favorite video sites: YouTube. If you're familiar with this statement: "Sorry, this video is no longer available," you know what I mean.

As internet connections speeds sped up across the nation in the mid to late 90's, the opportunity for information proliferation increased to the nirvana-like plane known as 'video feed.' YouTube was born! It's like watching America's Funniest Home Videos forever.

For many years we have enjoyed funny videos of fainting goats to favorite comedians. But recently more and more videos are being removed from YouTube. When searching you can still find specific videos, but when you click to play them up comes the glaring message putting a quick stop to our state of humorous nirvana that comes from watching TV on the computer.

Apparently, most of the videos are removed due to some sort of copyright infringement. This I can understand. If someone isn't getting their money for their product, you can believe there's going to be a stink about it. But I have searched for videos that are very "home video" in nature and found them to be removed. This isn't right! I want my mindless entertainment back!!!

I would rather not be able to find a video on YouTube than deal with the false hope I receive after excitedly clicking on my favorite funny video only to find it "REMOVED"! It's time for the people to rise up! It's time for the crowd to affect change! We want the goats, the rednecks, and the accidents back!

We want our YouTube back.

A Thinker

During my chaplaincy internship at the hospital I was recently asked one of those deep seeming theological questions that most people couldn't give a whip about but nerdy divinity students love to consider: At what point does the soul leave the body? Like the great statue by Auguste Rodin portrays, I was forced to ponder.

Because of today's advances in medical technology we are able to keep a person alive using machines when 100 years ago that person would expire. Often because of this technology peoples' bodies are given adequate time to heal and they are able to recover. The difficult reversal is that sometimes these machines keep a person's heart beating when he or she has otherwise passed away.

Many religions, Christianity included, teach that the physical body has a spiritual counter part: the soul. When our body no longer works, i.e. we die, the soul passes on to another realm of existence. Christians believe that if a person has a relationship with God then his or her soul goes to be with The Creator in a place we like to call heaven. But when does this spiritually divine transaction occur? When a person is brain dead his heart is still beating and supplying blood and oxygen to his organs. Medicine teaches that when a person is brain-dead he is actually dead. From this there is no coming back.

So when does the soul leave the body? A brain dead person's body can be kept functioning for days, even weeks, on enough aid from machines. But realistically and medically the person has died. When faced with this question my answer was as best as I can figure, "That is something we just have to leave with God."

If you can find me the verse in the Bible that answers this question please let me know. I invite theologians, which is all of you, to consider this and respond. Until then, we'll just have to trust God to take care of us as he has throughout human history.

Thank you God for receiving our souls no matter when they come to you.

Death Race

Recently I caught my wife in an unusual mood when on a Saturday evening she suggested, "Why don't we go see that Death Race movie?" Knowing I could not pass up this opportunity we ventured to the theater to see the poorly anticipated newest installment of what is sure to become a part of Jason Statham's "B" movie legacy.

I have never seen a outstanding Statham film where he played the main protagonist. Some people call this the "Van Dam syndrome." Statham has played in a myriad of films as the main character all of which payed off very mildly in the box office. But he continues to be cast in new films such as Death Race, released August '08. I have nothing personal against the actor, but as I see it he continually churns out really great "B" quality movies. I don't forsee an Emmy with his name on it anytime soon.

I must say, the movie is quite entertaining. Action-packed from beginning to end is an accurate expectation. It's kind of like Mad Max meets The Shawshank Redemption. Thought the plot is for the most part disclosed in the previews there is one small twist at the end which may catch the non-thinking viewer off guard. The stunts, special effects, and CGI are all incredibly well done and keep you on the edge of your seat. The cheese factor is also kept to a minimum if you can get past the premise that convicts are given sedan-like tanks and forced to race for their lives and freedom. There is a small bit of gore and bad language, but mostly the movie recieved an "R" rating due to the intense violent action.

Joan Allen did an expected excellent job playing the stone cold, refined, high-heeled prison warden. You might remember her as "Pamela Landy" from the second and third Jason Borne movies. Also, I don't know his name but the casting director found perhaps the best Al Pacino look-alike I've ever seen.

Over all the movie is good. It's not award winning but definitely worth a rent if you're looking for quality action. It was of course a remake of an old David Carradine and Sylvester Stalone movie, Death Race 2000, released 1975. I haven't seen that one yet...but I intent to.

Couldn't Pay Me Enough

I recently began an internship as a chaplain at UNC Hospitals. Thus far the experience has been wonderful and insightful. I am charged with the care for roughly 40 beds within the hospital plus sharing the responsibility of responding to the trauma pager when someone in bad shape comes to the emergency department (ED). Some of a chaplain's primary functions are to provide a calming presence, support, and grief counseling to those in need of it. Another function is to act as a liaison between the family and doctors when a trauma comes into the ED.

In a recent experience I met a family who's loved one was in the ED and in bad shape. The family was abrasive and short with me and the other chaplain present. However, as the hours passed and news steadily flowed in from doctors we bonded with the family. By the end of our time together they were telling us "we love you," thanking us, and all but kissing us goodbye. I can only hope that we made a positive impact on that family.

When trying my best to explain my role as chaplain to my "Chicago-ite" brother he earnestly responded, "man, you couldn't pay me enough to do that job." Luckily the hospital is hardly paying us at all.

But comments like that make me think back to my motivation for choosing this path. Being a chaplain this semester is going to be a difficult job, and I don't know if I'll choose to pursue chaplaincy as a career. However, I am thankful for those individuals in any hospital who have chosen the route of chaplaincy. There is little fame, glory, stature, or monetary gain for a hospital chaplain, but these people have chosen to submit themselves daily to helping others through difficult times often found in hospitals. That takes a special individual. Grieving over a lost child or hurting relative is not pleasant. As a chaplain for a semester I hope I can offer at least a bit of support to individuals such as these.

I plan on learning a lot during this internship by way of a unique experience and the counsel of those more experienced that I. Full time chaplains are surely remarkable people.

Go get'em Chappy!