Spirituality
A Personal Reflection by Jim Barnhart

"Spirituality speaks to the core of Peace Health’s mission, and really to the heart and soul of leadership. It entails a reverence for life that really goes to that essence of all beings, including the essence of ourselves as individuals.

"Spirituality connects us with each other by giving us a higher purpose, and that connectedness leads to care and concern for the other – it leads us to a desire to serve.  Because it ties us one to the other, spirituality is part of our leadership model, and an essential attribute in any holistic view of leadership.

"As spiritual leaders at Peace Health, we’re really encouraged to bring our heart and soul to work and care about the people we work with and for. Are they growing as persons? Can you help make them feel complete and whole? Can you share the same sense of enjoyment? We’re also encouraged to develop our spirituality through meditation and prayer. That’s a beautiful thing, because just as spiritual care is integral to the health care that Peace Health provides, spirituality is an essential attribute of our holistic view of leadership. 

"A lovely example of a creed for spiritual leaders is St. Francis prayer, in which he calls each of us – and in this case, particularly as leaders – to really think of the other and care for the other and to be instruments for peace and health. Another is Mother Theresa’s acknowledgement that we’re not called to be successful, rather we’re called to be faithful and to live in God’s grace. That’s pretty Catholic in a sense, but you can really translate that into any spiritual language.

"Sometimes spirituality expresses itself as a chill. Sometimes it’s a warm feeling, or a tear, or in an emotion welling up in us and catching us. It’s a recognition in the goodness of those you work with and for. Bringing spirituality to our work and the workplace frees us. It really gives us permission to listen to that spirit within, that sense of connectedness and love for each other, that belief that there is something behind the universe as we serve a higher purpose."