When people learn that I’m a Chaplain, I often hear, “Wow, it must be hard to be around death so much.” Often, they think Chaplains are Grim Reapers and represent gloom and death. Is it challenging and heartbreaking to be a Chaplain? Of course.

It is so much more though.

Being a Chaplain is having someone hold out a withered, crooked hand for you to hold and grab your heart in the process.

It is about raw emotion. The removal of the veil of “strength” we think everyone should wear. It is the moment when people demonstrate true strength, as they allow expression of emotions they’ve never known. Emotions they’ve always wanted to express but could not.

It is witnessing the courage to say “I’m afraid.”

It is watching a single tear, or flood of tears, pour from that part of the soul that loves deeply, and hurts even more.