I'm a registered nurse in a neuro/surgical intensive care unit, so my patients have a variety of really bad things wrong with them. Sometimes that can mean they are unable to control their bowels - - which can be managed by inserting a soft clear tube connected to a collection bag into...well, you know. As bad as this sounds, the loss of bowel control is usually caused by the REALLY, REALLY bad thing that's actually wrong with them, or the medication they're taking for it. So the obvious problem (pooping into a tube/bag) is really the least of their concerns.
Why in the world is this worth discussing? Well, it reminds me of how I am so quick to assume that the very worst thing I can see about somebody is their "real" problem. Imagine that awful person who lies, and acts stupid and terrible most of the time...you know - the people who end up on the news and reality TV shows. In my way of thinking, the visible ugliness of this person is like the bowel incontinence of a rectal tube patient...it's just a symptom of the true brokenness that's driving all that visible shit, if you will.
One thing Jesus did while he was here was to heal lots of people. He said and did mysterious things. Like when he healed a man who was paralyzed, he didn't say anything about fixing his neurological connections - he just said, "Your sins are forgiven." And the guy got up and walked. So Jesus saw the paralysis as the "rectal tube" and the sins as the underlying condition causing it.
I really hope I can remember this the next time I'm faced with my own personal ugliness, or that of another...that we're all just really broken, hurt, sick people who need Jesus to fix what's underneath the surface and causing us to make such messes on ourselves.
