Crap

February 24, 2021

There are times when the more colorful language of some of my friends has just the right edge to communicate what I really want to say, but my upbringing still keeps a guard on my lips, if not always my thoughts. I suspect I’m not the only pastor caught in this bind, although I know some pastors whose language is often almost indistinguishable from my less fastidious friends.

Years ago, a close friend who was also a good storyteller told me about the time his brother rear-ended a car. The driver hastily exited his vehicle to confront the brother, who was quite a formidable hulk of a man. The gentleman whose car was hit threatened my friend’s brother, who promptly dropped him to the ground with a right cross. The smaller man jumped up and started dancing around like a boxer, shouting, “You...you...you,” whereupon the brother dropped him again, ending the incident. Turns out, the other guy was a pastor who either didn’t know the right cuss words, or didn’t dare use them. I know a few, but choose not to use them.

But sometimes... 

Last Sunday, the pastor spoke about Jesus’ parable of the Sower and came to the part where the seed was choked by the thorns. Jesus said the thorns represent the cares and worries of this world. The pastor said, “Life often throws a lot of crap at you.” (This is where I thought the more earthy language of my friends might have served him better, except for the people in the pews who would have been aghast). He continued, “When life throws crap at us, we often hold on to it. We need to let it drop to the ground, because the crap fertilizes the ground so it will bear a good crop.” 

I thought that was a pretty good word picture that would have had even more punch had he been free to use more colorful language. To tell the truth, I would have said it the same way, but you get my drift. And even with milder language, what he said rings true. When we hold on to crap, it only makes us stink. But when we let it drop, those very words spoken against us, the troubles that buffet us, the injustice hurled our way, enrich the soil of God’s Word in our hearts, and tilled in by the Holy Spirit, bring a fruitful bounty of love, grace, and endurance in our lives. 

It can be hard work dropping all that crap (or whatever you prefer to call it), but I’m grateful tonight that God wastes nothing, and the difficulties and challenges of life are piling up in his spiritual compost heap. When he forks it into the garden of our souls and tills it under, it will by the Holy Spirit produce a harvest of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness that can feed many a hungry soul.