In "The State of Spirituality," Lisa Ling explores how faith and spiritual care shape the final chapter of life. She meets a hospital chaplain whose own journey helps others find comfort in their final moments.

Tampa

Chaplain June Park, a Christian chaplain at Tampa General Hospital, provides spiritual support to patients facing the end of life. Park describes death as a spiritual experience, emphasizing the importance of making meaning and finding comfort during difficult times. He works alongside chaplains of various faiths, offering a non-judgmental and empathetic presence to patients and their families.

Park's own journey to faith began after a tumultuous childhood and involvement with a local church, eventually leading him to chaplaincy. He acknowledges that faith can be both a source of strength and a source of questioning for those nearing death. Park believes that, while not all questions about mortality have answers, acts of love and compassion can provide peace in life's final chapter.

Faith, mortality and finding peace in the final chapter

What does it mean to die? It's a question often only contemplated at desperate moments. But it's one Chaplain June Park faces every day. Is death a spiritual experience? I believe it is a spiritual experience. So much of death involves making meaning of what is happening, questioning our own value of the life that was lived. These are all spiritual and existential things. Park has been a Christian Chaplain at Tampa General Hospital in Florida for more than a decade. It's about being empathetic, being in that moment. Alongside 24 other Chaplains of various faiths. How are you feeling today? Very good. Park has seen firsthand how in times of crisis, faith often becomes a lifeline for those suffering. I've been through a lot, but this is the worst. And would you like me to pray for you with that basket? Yes, yes. Randall Lindbergh was one of Park's patients the day we were there. He offered him spiritual support and counseling. Pray for us. Now at the hour of our death, amen. What exactly does a hospital Chaplain do? Our technical definition is a non-anxious, non-judgmental, comforting presence. The joke that I make is I'm a cross between a priest and a therapist, or a therapist. So I sit at that intersection of faith and mental health and health care. Around 70% of U.S. adults consider themselves spiritual, meaning they believe in something bigger than themselves, like God or a creator. I heard you've been in and out of the hospital quite a lot. Yeah. Over the last couple of years. Yes. Has your faith grown stronger? Yes, absolutely, because all I've done is prayed. There's no way I could get to this point, to this day, without that faith. Do you think people become spiritual or they seek out spirituality as they are embarking upon death? Yeah, I would say yes, but. So there are some who pursue spirituality in a way that I need something in this moment that's bigger than the treatment, the medication, the care teams, and then there are others who are just angry at God. And I validate both, because both of these, for me, are spiritual experiences. But Park was not always a believer. In fact, growing up in Florida, he was an atheist. And now you are a hospital chaplain. How did you arrive at this place? Having grown up in a very tumultuous and unfortunately abusive household, I wanted to enter a calling where I could be present to someone's story, their pain, their grief. As a teen, he became involved in a local Korean church looking for a drummer to play in their band. And I asked him, is it a problem that I'm an atheist? He said, no, just come. What brought me towards faith was the love of this small church, this supernatural love. Park found God and eventually felt called to hospital chaplaincy. He's now held thousands of hands on deathbeds. And through his work, Park has learned, even with faith, not everything makes sense. I'm sure you found yourself saying, if God is a kind and merciful God, how can he or she allow this suffering to happen? Yeah, we do live on a world of extreme, unthinkable, unfair suffering. And on the other hand, we live in a world of the possibility of love covering pain. And I, as a chaplain, sit at the intersection of my patients and their extreme suffering. My love for them, my care for them, our care for them, in some way, representing or reflecting the love of God. So now, here at the end, we're back to the beginning. That original question, what does it mean to die? It's still mostly unanswered. But maybe that's okay. Maybe part of having faith is not knowing the answers, but loving anyway. I am more likely to find God in the hospital and in the hallways here, maybe even at church. For me, when love shows up, God shows up. [♪ music ends ♪

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