{"id":16838,"date":"2026-03-10T13:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T13:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/faith-in-action-a-hospital-chaplain-gives-grace\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:02:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:02:26","slug":"faith-in-action-a-hospital-chaplain-gives-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/inspiring-stories\/faith-in-action-a-hospital-chaplain-gives-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith in Action: A Hospital Chaplain Gives Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I walked into my office at the VA Medical Center in Marion, Indiana, that August morning at 7:30 a.m. and glanced at the sticky note on my desk with my current prayer list. I always took <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/daily-devotions\/devotions-for-faith-prayer\/start-your-day-with-prayer\/\">a few minutes for solitary prayer<\/a> before I began my rounds to check in with patients\u2014my congregants.<\/p>\n<p>I went through the list, then finished with the same prayer that I said every morning.<\/p>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ada4f91 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"ada4f91\" data-element_type=\"container\" id=\"home-banner-stn\">\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-72e6e8eb elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"72e6e8eb\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Community Newsletter<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-261bcec elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"261bcec\" 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\/>\n                <script id=\"nf-tmpl-cell\" type=\"text\/template\">\n            <nf-fields><\/nf-fields>\n        <\/script><\/p>\n<p>        <script id=\"nf-tmpl-row\" type=\"text\/template\">\n            <nf-cells><\/nf-cells>\n        <\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><i>Lord, let me see you work in one small way today.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>It was breakfast time, so I walked through the dining rooms on a couple of the wards, greeting my long-term patients by first name or nickname. They responded with their usual friendly banter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHey, Padre, what are you doing up so early?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPastor, do you want my yogurt?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChaplain, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I chatted with them and noticed that some of my congregants were not in the dining room. I headed to the hospice ward.<\/p>\n<p>My first stop was Steve\u2019s room. He was a long-term resident in his seventies who had been seriously ill for almost a week. I squirted on some hand sanitizer and walked in, calling out, \u201cGood morning, Steve! It\u2019s Chaplain David.\u201d Steve lay in bed breathing slowly, his face blank. He didn\u2019t respond to my greeting.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d met Steve three years earlier, and we\u2019d become fast friends. He was mostly paralyzed and struggled with moral injury, the deep psychological and spiritual distress that can arise when a person faces situations that go against their values or beliefs. He had served in Vietnam and carried a lot of guilt and shame over what he\u2019d done and seen in the war. He said he relied on God just to make it through each day.<\/p>\n<p>I would push his wheelchair to the hospital store\u2014the canteen, as the residents called it\u2014where he\u2019d always buy a Dr Pepper. We would sit outside together, sometimes talking, <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/9-inspiring-sunshine-quotes\/\">sometimes just enjoying the sunshine<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now there were long pauses between Steve\u2019s breaths. I knew he didn\u2019t have much time left. I sat by his side and took his hand. <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/entertainment\/music\/wintley-phipps-sings-amazing-grace\/\">I sang \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d to him.<\/a> Then I closed my eyes and prayed aloud. \u201cJesus, thank you for Steve\u2019s life. Will you wrap your arms around his spirit now and carry him to an eternity with you?\u201d When I opened my eyes, Steve was gone.<\/p>\n<p>The nurse and doctor confirmed he had died. I headed back to my office. I needed to be alone. I cried over the loss of a man who had become so much more than a hospital patient to me.<\/p>\n<p>I knew I could go to one of my good friends, a fellow chaplain on the ward, to talk if I needed it. We leaned on each other during times like these. Learning to process grief was a part of working in hospice.<\/p>\n<p>I talked to another hospice patient, then went to visit a man who had just been admitted to the acute mental health ward. I made sure to meet with new arrivals to see if they had any spiritual needs or just to chat and get to know them. This gentleman told me he had been drinking and <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/health-and-wellness\/coping-with-illness\/5-warning-signs-of-suicide\/\">having suicidal thoughts<\/a>. When I asked him to tell me more, he got up and walked away. Visit over.<\/p>\n<p>His reaction made me think of another patient, one of the first ones I\u2019d met when I started working here. He too had walked away. He\u2019d even yelled at me. A rough start, but after I told him I was a veteran as well, that I\u2019d served with both the Army and Air National Guard, he opened up. Perhaps it would be the same with this new patient once we got to know each other.<\/p>\n<p>Next was the long-term geriatric psychiatry unit. I entered one room with my usual greeting. \u201cGood morning! It\u2019s Chaplain David. How are you doing today?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t want to talk to you,\u201d the man in bed shouted. \u201cGet out of here!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most of our residents were receptive to a chaplain visit, but some weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>This patient was grouchy and kicked me out on most days. I left his room, reminding myself that he and the other men in the unit dealt with <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/positive-living\/health-and-wellness\/better-living\/emotional-and-mental-health\/why-we-should-make-our-mental-health-a-top-priority\/\">serious mental health issues<\/a>. It wouldn\u2019t be helpful to take their words personally. They needed grace. There were days when that grouchy gentleman did want to talk. I\u2019d try again next week.<\/p>\n<p>I visited some residents in the dayroom. One man asked me to pray with him. I talked with him for a while, then decided to take a break. It had been quite a morning.<\/p>\n<p>After lunch, I heard a knock on my office door. It was Chris, a patient from our drug and alcohol rehab program. I\u2019d become the lead chaplain for the program at my supervisor\u2019s suggestion.<\/p>\n<p>Chris was one of our younger veterans, in his mid-thirties. He wanted to talk one-on-one after hearing me speak to his rehab group about moral injury. Chris had served as an Army mechanic. He told me he harbored a lot of bitterness toward the military for making him fix airplanes that went out on missions that resulted in civilian casualties. He felt he had played a part in harming people who didn\u2019t deserve it, which violated the moral code he lived by. He hadn\u2019t been raised religious, but he was curious whether the Bible could shed some light on his situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave you ever heard the story of the prodigal son?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>Chris shook his head. As I told him about the prodigal son seeking and finding forgiveness from his father, his eyes went wide. \u201cYou can\u2019t hear this story and not be moved!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho do you need to forgive?\u201d I asked him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI need to forgive myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWho else?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>Chris thought for a minute, then realized that he also needed to forgive the pilots, his commanders and the military leadership. We talked a little longer about forgiveness and then prayed together. \u201cYou\u2019ve given me a lot to think about,\u201d he told me before he left. \u201cThank you, Chaplain David.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As I typed up notes on the spiritual care I\u2019d provided, I recalled why my supervisor had suggested I take on work with the rehab patients. He\u2019d hoped it would balance out my hospice work\u2014endings <em>and<\/em> new beginnings. Today I had sat with Steve, a struggling older veteran, as he found peace in his final moments. And I\u2019d sat with Chris, a younger veteran starting his journey of healing from his own moral injury.<\/p>\n<p>In my morning prayer, I had asked to see God work in one small way today. I never see less, but some days I see much more than one small work of God.<\/p>\n<p><em>For more inspiring stories, subscribe to <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/shop\/product\/guideposts-magazine\/\"><strong>Guideposts <\/strong><\/a><em>magazine<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I walked into my office at the VA Medical Center in Marion, Indiana, that August morning at 7:30 a.m. and glanced at the sticky note on my desk with my current prayer list. I always took a few minutes for solitary prayer before I began my rounds to check in with patients\u2014my congregants. I went [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,185],"tags":[15,215,37,11,161,72,163],"ppma_author":[499],"class_list":["post-16838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-stories","category-stories-of-faith-and-hope","tag-faith","tag-forgiveness","tag-grace","tag-helping-others","tag-military","tag-stories-of-faith","tag-veterans"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Faith in Action: A Hospital Chaplain Gives Grace - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faith in Action: A Hospital Chaplain Gives Grace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I walked into my office at the VA Medical Center in Marion, Indiana, that August morning at 7:30 a.m. and glanced at the sticky note on my desk with my current prayer list. 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