A Chaplain’s Battle : Transcending Powerlessness in an Explosive World

Good morning, I’m Chaplain Michael Jaques, a chaplain with the US Army Reserve and with the VA. Today I want to share chapter one of my book “A Chaplain’s Battle: Transcending Powerlessness in an Explosive World.” It is a story of an Army chaplain who works through his feelings of powerlessness to finally find resolution. What he learns is applicable to many people who struggle with similar feelings. Good morning, I’m Chaplain Michael Jaques, a chaplain with the US Army Reserve and with the VA. Today I want to share chapter one of my book “A Chaplain’s Battle: Transcending Powerlessness in an Explosive World.” It is a story of an Army chaplain who works through his feelings of powerlessness to finally find resolution. What he learns is applicable to many people who struggle with similar feelings. Hope Self Realization Books find helpful for you.

                                           Prologue|Unspoken

We think of them as powerful defenders of life. In moments when bullets are flying, fires are blazing, blood is spurting and greater tragedy is looming, they make life-or-death decisions. Their instinct is always to save those whose lives are threatened.

But some of those die in their care. Others are left crippled by injuries or anxieties. Afterward, our soldiers, police officers, paramedics and firefighters often feel powerlessness that most are unwilling to admit. Shame, embarrassment, or a crushing sense of failure inhibits conversations with co-workers. Troubling “why” questions haunt their sleep. And many struggle to admit mistakes or weaknesses. These universal feelings cause strong men and women to think they should abandon their calling.

But we don’t dare let that happen. Our society cannot afford to lose these compassionate and dedicated people. Our survival, in war or peace, depends on their willingness to serve. We all lose if their ranks are diminished because they incorrectly believe they are inadequate or berate themselves when they cannot save the lives of the bereft, the stricken, or the innocent casualties of terrorism.

I came to this topic as an Army chaplain deployed several times to war zones at the onset of our nation’s participation in the chaplain's war on terror. Through interviews and research, I quickly learned that this sense of powerlessness is widespread and unspoken. Yet when given the chance, I found my colleagues and other frontline caregivers quite willing to share their experiences—if only to help the thousands of other men and women who have yet to understand and to overcome it.

Therapists, theologians and researchers have known for decades that committed caregivers—those whose primary purpose in life is to assist others in crisis—all suffer from the debilitating experience of powerlessness.

Police officers feel it when they see innocent people suffer from criminal violence; doctors and nurses experience it when they can’t save the lives of chronically ill children; and first responders struggle with it when they see lives torn apart in accidents and fires.

Even leaders whose responsibilities do not include administering health care or protective services may fall into despair if they make a mistake that they perceive as harming the people they have sworn to help.

The five attainments I humbly offer herein are an answer to this pervasive problem. These simple yet profound steps to freedom are achieved by embracing an unexpected source of liberation—a willingness to accept our weakness. We cannot be broken by our human limitations if we are willing to accept them. In accepting them, we open ourselves to the only power that can help us transcend the explosive, often inexplicable world we live and work in.

Caregivers, take heart. Your gift to society does not need to spell personal ruin. Quite the opposite. Your commitment to shaking free of despair is a path to the fulfillment you imagined when you first answered the call.

To express the range of emotions and situations many caregivers experience, I created a fictional character, Chaplain Tim Parker.” His traumas and challenges are based on real events that either I or my colleagues have experienced. This approach allows me to be a storyteller and a facilitator of dialogue about our true-life struggles. I believe these stories will help us embrace and ponder the expansiveness of our unique role in the world.

Drawing on my research and interviews with other caregivers about powerlessness, I also offer analysis of the chaplain’s travels. By blending a fictional narrative with the insights of modern and historic thought leaders, I present the paradox of faith in our explosive world.

Michael D. Jaques

Wounded Warrior Chaplain/MDW/JFHQ-NCR