The Poop that Changed Everything

If any of you have ever potty-trained children, you can relate to this.

My 3-year-old son is in the midst of some epic potty training adventures.  Now this isn’t my first rodeo, as my 5-year-old potty-trained quite well. It was pretty easy for him, or at least it seemed that way to me.

The thing about my 3-year-old son is not that he doesn’t know how to go, it’s that he doesn’t want to stop what he’s doing to go.  He goes sometimes, just not all the time. As a parent this can be extremely frustrating because we know they can do it, they just don’t want to.

(Many of you are nodding your heads and know exactly what I’m talking about.)

Recently my son had “an accident” not once but three times during the day and I was fed up. I was tired of scrubbing and washing poop-stained Toy Story underpants. I had reached my limit and told him after the third accident that he would get a spanking if he did it again.

Sure enough about an hour later as he was playing I smelled something and BINGO he had pooped in his pants again.

I sat him on the toilet, and began round four of cleaning poop off Buzz Lightyear and was ready to let him have it. I was furious and my emotions rationalized that if I spank him and show him how disappointed I am, he’ll “get it.”  I was ready. He was about to get his well-deserved spanking.

Just as I was finishing washing his underpants, my son looked up at me with the most tender of faces and said “Daddy, are you mad at me?” He truly looked as though he did not know, but really hoped he hadn’t let me down and made me mad.

Ouch!

His question was instantly followed by another voice, an inaudible voice that said to me:

“This is YOUR son, just as you are MY son. If I took him away from you tomorrow, you’d spend every day for the rest of your life begging ME to have him back just so you could wipe his butt.”

Every Day…

And it wrecked me…

Holy Spirit was right…

If my son were taken from me, I would be begging God for the chance again.

I found myself not giving the same precious Mercy and Grace that I cling to, that Christ extends to me every single second of every single day, to my own son.

I embraced my son and told him I loved him and I wasn’t mad at him. He thought my tears were tears of disappointment; and they were, just not at him. At myself…

I further encouraged him to try better but that he could never do anything that would make me not love him.

It was then that I was reminded that I’m not different. I don’t poop in my pants, but I sure do screw up.

I sin. I fall short. I just do. I just did.

I’m thankful that God loves me, embraces me, doesn’t beat me, or give me what I deserve.

I’m thankful that God is not punishing me for my bad choices, or sins I’ve committed. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay for all of our sin on the cross. This doesn’t absolve me from consequences realized in this world, but those consequences are not God showing His mighty wrath towards me. That’s just part of being in this world.

In Isaiah 53, the prophet Isaiah speaks about the coming Messiah and God’s plans for Him.  He says in verse 10:

“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.”

Did you see that? “It was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…” God was pleased to not just watch, but also crush His own Son, Jesus Christ, and to die a heinous death so that you and I would not have to take the spanking we deserve when we “poop in our pants.”*  

He did this so He could look at us and see us blameless and pure, not marred in sin. So that He could know and love us and we could know and love Him!

Think about that…

Jesus demonstrated this in His own life as He took up for the adulterous women in John 8.  He kept the Pharisees from punishing her according to their law, by addressing their own tendency to sin, instead of self-righteous judgment of this poor woman.

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” – John 8:10-11

Jesus shows us that her sin is no better or worse than my sin or yours. He shows mercy, grace, love and encouragement.  Without Jesus being there, she would have undoubtedly been stoned. Because she had Jesus, she was shown unmerited favor and mercy.

Without Jesus, we would be doomed.

When we encounter those who sin against us, live lifestyles we don’t agree with, or believe we have the right to straighten someone out, let's remember that throwing stones is not going to be received with enthusiasm.

Try to recall when the last time you changed your behavior because someone threatened you. How did that make you feel?

Now recall the last time someone embraced you in your mess and loved you through it.  How did that make you feel?

It’s time that we choose love. We bring Heaven to Earth! We can’t do that by simply throwing stones or handing out spankings, but we can do that with Love, lots of it!

We were created to Love God and Love people and God wants a real, loving relationship with you!  

It’s so much bigger than test to see if we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior and some day go to heaven, or reject Him and go to hell. Sure, part of the Gospel of the Kingdom is salvation, but it’s also to bring Heaven to Earth!

Once you get this revelation, everything changes…

And God might even use poop to show it to you!

*(In case you didn’t catch that “poop in our pants” is a metaphor for sin)