INTRODUCTION
We constantly journey through our highs and lows: between moments of safety and nourishment, and moments of danger. While the Parable of the Good Shepherd leans towards giving hope to those who feel lost in places of danger, there are participants in the support groups that I facilitate who claim that no one has come back to find them. They feel that they are still in danger and have not found their places of safety. They feel hopeless and disappointed.
The impulse to preach and give false hope by making predictions as offered by the parable is tempting (i.e., you will be found). However, the role of the chaplain is simply to bear witness to how the sojourner finds oneself in the terrain or map of the never-ending flux of the highs and lows, and then invite the listener of the parable to wonder and to notice: to name one's experience as it is using the mythological archetype as a lens.
We feel disempowered when our experience of disorientation remains unnamed and nameless. But naming one's experience of disorientation is a powerful act.
We constantly journey through our highs and lows: between moments of safety and nourishment, and moments of danger. While the Parable of the Good Shepherd leans towards giving hope to those who feel lost in places of danger, there are participants in the support groups that I facilitate who claim that no one has come back to find them. They feel that they are still in danger and have not found their places of safety. They feel hopeless and disappointed.
The impulse to preach and give false hope by making predictions as offered by the parable is tempting (i.e., you will be found). However, the role of the chaplain is simply to bear witness to how the sojourner finds oneself in the terrain or map of the never-ending flux of the highs and lows, and then invite the listener of the parable to wonder and to notice: to name one's experience as it is using the mythological archetype as a lens.
We feel disempowered when our experience of disorientation remains unnamed and nameless. But naming one's experience of disorientation is a powerful act.
Guide for Facilitators of Spiritual Care Support Groups
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Practice the Godly Play storytelling:
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