Spotlight on Rev. Lisa Anderson: Sacred Times

by Millen Darnell

The Reverend Lisa Anderson is a Cumberland Presbyterian Minister serving as Interim Pastor at the First Presbyterian Church, West Memphis, Arkansas. During weekdays, she is a full time chaplain at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. This internationally known hospital serves children with catastrophic diseases; not every child here will survive the fight to live. Serving as a chaplain to children who have severe and life threatening diseases as well as to their grieving yet supportive parents has caused Lisa to reflect deeply upon the meaning of the Christian faith.

She has a profound understanding of Christian theology expressly because she is seeking to understand the love of God in a difficult yet loving, traumatic yet peaceful, living yet dying setting. At St. Jude, there are continual physical, emotional, and spiritual crises. We can all learn from Lisa’s penetrating insights into the meaning of life and death, faith and hope, and trust and peace.

Talking with Lisa fills one with the slightest glimpse into her life. She shares some intense and indelible thoughts. . . “Every second we are alive is important, and our impact on this world is not measured in years. Having people we love around us makes suffering more bearable. Children have an innate faith. They are given some special graces to endure.”

The touch of tiny fingers and the sounds of baby giggles are food for her soul. Lisa continues her thoughts, “Heaven is a safe place, and children do not fear going there. Faith is something that takes work to understand and strength to define. Friendship never ends. We are strengthened when we share the journey. I feel my heart breaking each time one of these children dies. The death of a child is a sacred time, as sacred and holy as the time the child is born.”

Lisa says that serving the Lord as a chaplain at St. Jude where there are so many sick and dying children is intimidating, exhausting, and overwhelming, but also the most sacred experience. She is a living example of what James (2:18B) wrote, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.”