A Conversation… (Paulie asks Rocky about Paulie’s sister… ADRIAN!!)
Paulie: You like her?
Rocky: Sure, I like her.
Paulie: What's the attraction?
Rocky: I dunno... she fills gaps.
Paulie: What's 'gaps'?
Rocky: I dunno… she’s got gaps… I got gaps… ‘…together we fill gaps…’
(From the original Rocky movie, 1977 Best Picture Oscar)
Dear Fellow Hikers,
When Rocky was released (November,1976), I was living in West Philadelphia, housed at Philly’s very own Ivy League Institution of Higher Learning. As part of my freshman orientation, we visited several of Philadelphia’s popular landmarks on a tour guided by the UPenn hockey coach, who had recruited myself and others in the group from our homes around the US and Canada for the opportunity to play Division 1 hockey. We loaded into a van and toured the historic sites of the city… walked a famous farmers market… and visited several other landmarks. The stop that I remember most was our visit to the front steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Coach told us that several scenes of the soon to be released Rocky movie had been filmed there. The scene turned out to be Rocky’s iconic run up the front steps of the museum… reaching the top… leaping around… fists clenched in the air… in celebration… celebration of now being physically prepared to fight the reigning World Heavyweight Champion, Apollo Creed.
My residence in Philadelphia was short lived (months not years - more on that later...) and I ended up watching the movie in Minneapolis, not Philadelphia. Rocky turned out to be one of my Top 10 favorite movies, with many memorable quotes living on in my mind. And now, here I am writing about a line from the movie, almost 50 years later, giving me a chance to use my best Rocky voice reciting “… I dunno… she’s got gaps… I got gaps… together we fill gaps…”.
When I started my chaplain career, the first step in my mission was to establish a ministry of presence. My plan was to simply show up where my public safety community worked, lived, and played. Once present, I’d try to be helpful in any way I could, and most importantly, try and stay out of the way. I was there to live my faith and share my faith (when asked) without imposing my faith.
It wasn’t long before I established quite a few personal relationships with the police, fire and EMS folks that I’d had the opportunity to meet. From my perspective as a pastor, whose chaplain job is to build relationships and provide spiritual care to people in need, most of those relationships were faith based*. It was through these faith based conversations that I discovered a significant gap in how I provided spiritual care.
Most people I worked with had fairly well-established beliefs about God. However, there were significant gaps in how they connected or could connect with God, and were often stuck on how to practice those beliefs. It is in that faith gap where I started to share some ideas on ‘the how’ of a faith relationship, and put together** these Five Basic Practices of Faith:
Prayer - Fellowship - Study - Community - Service
These practices are in no particular order of significance as they all intersect and enhance the others, and even though the dictionary may not agree with me (and I haven’t checked cause I don’t want to know the answer), I use all five words as verbs… action words! As I think of how these practices impacted my UPenn hockey experience, I can honestly say all of them came into play, but the one that stands out most is Community. At that time, I knew in my gut I wanted to be somewhere else, and it was my life communities (hockey, faith, family, neighborhood, Minnesota…) that filled the gaps and helped me recognize that my semester as an Ivy Leaguer was in fact a wonderful learning experience, but an experience leading to a path that would be best not to continue. I’d learned that what I needed was some good old fashioned… common-unity.
And now, once again I need to say how much I appreciate you, our readers. You walk with me and my stories, as I try to tell them as they should be told, told in a way that serves my mission - to share these stores with the intent of helping you better discover your own stories.
With Care and Gratitude, Dan
Postscript…
Re: *Faith Based… Most people will read the term faith based and come up with a variety of meanings based on their individual context and perspectives. And I encourage that! That is how you can hear my story and make it your own. Here are a few of my personal variations: actively faith based… passively faith based… non-faith based… inter-faith based…
Re: **…and put together… All of what I say, think, write, etc. is inspired by the things I’ve learned and experienced from other people. In this case, it was my 10th grade hockey coach John Straiton - a.k.a. my youth pastor, the officiant of my wedding, the guy who introduced me to hiking and backpacking… and so much more!
Up Next: “It Begins With Caring … caring about…” (Friday 12/20/24, S1/L3)
Thanks again for reading! Dan