Well this is Shit!

 

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock.

The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear.

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.

And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:9-1

It was time to bring out an old favorite Christmastime teaching for my spirituality groups. The reading from Luke describing the circumstances of our Savior’s birth.

I asked my patients why they thought Jesus was born in a manger?  Most of the answers were predictable and correct – to demonstrate humility, that we are all equal, even a king can be born in dire conditions.

Then I asked my patients if they really thought about what a manger was like?  Animals, in the case of Jesus’ manger, lots of animals surrounding his crib.  What comes with animals?  Crap.  That’s right – our beautiful, loving savior was born into crap.  I asked them to imagine the smell.

Why would the will of our God be to be born there?

Two thousand years later, we sometimes let ourselves go to unholy places, we do very unholy things or have unholy things done to us.  Does the shit in our own lives keep us from relationship with God?

If it does, if we erect barriers based on our sinfulness or others’ sinfulness toward us, we can remember that our king was born into filth.  That stable did not stay filthy! 

And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Luke 2:13

 

Glory came, joy arrived, in the birth of a baby, came hope for a broken world.

Two thousand years later our Jesus can still bring glory, joy and hope to each one of us.

It was time to pick our music.  Music is a vital part of the spirituality groups I conduct.  Patients get to choose what they’d like to hear – within very broad limits.  Once I had a patient request Eminem, only to find me five seconds later frantically searching for the pause button as a stream of f-words came out of the chaplain’s speaker!  Eminem was banned.

One of my patients said, “Let’s hear ‘Well This is Shit.’”  She patiently explained, “Well we’re talking about crap.”

Shit is my favorite epithet.  I try giving it up for lent every year since it does appear unseemly for a chaplain to be saying, “shit” at any given moment but there it is.

I polled the room. Would anyone mind hearing, “Well this is shit?” Not a single dissent so there began a jubilant time, patients laughed and I laughed, a tech came in, he laughed.

Listening to the jaunty ballad, I realized why my patient loved this song.

 

You’re trying to be helpful, and that is always nice

But right now all logic only grates so don’t try to give advice

I need someone to rant at who’ll not judge or take offence

At my incessant f’ing swearing and my unfiltered sentiments

So stop the pragmatic intervention just nod and say you’ll understand

Pretend I’m not being an unreasonable arsehole and hold on to my hand

Well this is shit

Oh this is shit

I’m not expecting answers, because they’re out of your remit

I’m not looking for solutions just for someone to admit

That this is shit

This is shit

This is shit

 

Kudos to Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq. for brilliantly summing up what many of us need during a crisis, someone to “hold unto our hand.”

Many years before as an enthusiastic trauma chaplain I would want to try somehow to fix unfixable solutions.  Years later I realized my “Martha-like” sentiments were not always the most helpful.

When I began a concentration in behavioral health ministry I quickly became aware of how vulnerable my patients were.  People who have physical ailments are often treated with respect, dignity and kindness by the world at large. 

You’ve got a walker?  Here let me get that door for you. You have cancer?  Let me bring you food.  Let me take you to the doctor’s.

“You have schizophrenia? Let me get to the other side of the street.”  “You’re depressed.  Call me when you’re in a better mood.”

Acts of kindness to people physically impaired are commendable and hesitation to embrace the mentally ill is understandable.

We are human.  Many of us do not want to see our fellow humans in trouble.  What can we do when all that can be tried has been and just hasn’t worked? -- when we’ve prayed and the answer we wanted didn’t materialize? 

Understanding that just our presence can be invaluable begs us to realize that we, despite our brokenness, are precious to and beloved by God.

Then Jesus said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me.” He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet, not as I will, but as you will.” When he returned to his disciples, he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?

Matthew 28:38-40

Jesus did not need the disciples to fix what was going to happen to him.  He needed their presence.  Much sympathy goes to those apostles who presumably just couldn’t stand watching their Jesus, their teacher, their friend, facing the unthinkable.  The story would not have changed if they had been present but the apostles’ presence would have shored him up to face his fate.

 

The next time we are tempted to try and fix something that is beyond us, it could be incredibly helpful to know we can just be present and say, “This is shit.”

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE4lpSFNFUE