In my boyhood days, a consistent coffee table fixture in our house was Reader’s Digest  (ask your grandparents).  

I enjoyed reading the humor pages–“Life in These United States,” “Humor in Uniform”–and doing the little world puzzles and quizzes.

Other pieces occasionally attracted my attention.  One of them was a regular: “I am Joe’s (or Jane’s) Heart” (or liver or lung).  The article then examined in some detail – for health reasons, of course – that body part.

Thus, my Reader’s Digest memory tempts and I cannot resist. “Hi!  I am SMU’s Chaplain.” Let me share with you why I think your knowing us in the Chaplain’s Office matters to you.
College is a major step in your plan to attain the situation and status you most likely envision as an independent adult.  This truism about “the college years” we all know.  But college is also about your becoming the kind of person you want (and believe yourself) to be.  Skills and expertise learned in college are important tools, but what kind of person wields those tools?

Try this example: few people question whether police officers should have access to deadly force, even though we may have disagreements about the parameters in which it is used.  What kind of person would you prefer having access to such power? What makes a good police officer good: just skill in using a weapon?  Or other qualities: compassion, self-restraint and sound judgment?  These qualities require practice, too, just like the discipline of going to class and completing the assignments.  

As you imagine yourself, say, 20 years from now, what kind of person do you want to be? When you have the position to use the tools you have honed here at SMU, what kind of person will exercise that influence?

Everyone who works in higher education has a piece of this vision, but we chaplains feel a particular calling to invest in helping you with this part of your development.  What kind of person are you becoming?  Are you confident that your answer to this question will last you a lifetime?

We’re here to engage with you and to explore profoundly important questions.  I should admit that I believe some are ultimately religious questions, but I don’t want you to get stuck on the word “religious.”  We are interested in you, period.

In order for chaplains to exercise this role, we, too, have to be “the right kind of people.” 

We have to be trustworthy.  We have to be gentle and compassionate.  We have to be appropriately self-aware and demonstrate integrity and truthfulness.  Certainly, we have skills and professional training.  But what matters the most is the kind of people we are. 

We have to ask the same questions you are asking. 

My colleagues in the office all pre-date me here at SMU.  In the six months I’ve known them, I’ve learned how great a staff they are.  They – we – are here for you.
So, in keeping with that Reader’s Digest tradition: Hi! I’m Steve Rankin. I’m SMU’s Chaplain.   

Steve Rankin is SMU’s chaplain. He can be reached for comment at  [email protected].