Disclaimer - this post is about poop. If you are uncomfortable with the topic or if you have just eaten you have been warned.
Recently there was a Podcast from "Freakanomics Radio" entitled "The Power of Poop".
This bit of radio gold, expresses the "rediscovery" of what is being called at this point 'fecal matter transplant' (or less technically 'transpoosion'). It is the idea of taking bacterium from a healthy person's bowels and transplanting that bacterium into the bowels of a sick person. It is the hope that the healthy bacterium will bring a balance to the sick person's bowels. This transplant is still on the fringe of the medical/science community but is growing in support.
I have no idea if it "works" but it is having a wide range of success according to the podcast.
This got me thinking about God and how God works.
The Christian narrative is one that shouts are loudly as I know of, of a God who sees the beauty in all people and all things and all situations. God is that source of life which is able to see and enemy and rather than push the enemy away or kill the enemy, God prays for the enemy and loves the enemy.
In fact, in the Gospel of John and in the writings of Paul, the word "flesh" is used to describe that which is opposed to God (see John 1:10-13 or Romans 7:5 or 1 Corinthians 3:2-3). And yet, God uses that which is opposed to God, human "flesh", to reveal Godself and reconcile the world. To say it another way, God came in the form of flesh, a enemy of God, in order to bring peace and reconciliation.
Can you do that? Can you incorporate your enemy into yourself so that you can bring reconciliation?
I have yet to meet anyone who could do that sans the Holy Spirit of God in Christ.
God creates a world in which even that which is opposed to God becomes the source of healing and reconciliation.
Which brings us back to poop.
The world is set up so that even that which we recoil at and deem as "waste" can in fact bring healing.
*As a side note, when I shared this idea of fecal matter transplants with a church member, she pondered "if we would be more willing to accept other people's poop rather than being so full of our own poop, we could all be healed?"
Recently there was a Podcast from "Freakanomics Radio" entitled "The Power of Poop".
This bit of radio gold, expresses the "rediscovery" of what is being called at this point 'fecal matter transplant' (or less technically 'transpoosion'). It is the idea of taking bacterium from a healthy person's bowels and transplanting that bacterium into the bowels of a sick person. It is the hope that the healthy bacterium will bring a balance to the sick person's bowels. This transplant is still on the fringe of the medical/science community but is growing in support.
I have no idea if it "works" but it is having a wide range of success according to the podcast.
This got me thinking about God and how God works.
The Christian narrative is one that shouts are loudly as I know of, of a God who sees the beauty in all people and all things and all situations. God is that source of life which is able to see and enemy and rather than push the enemy away or kill the enemy, God prays for the enemy and loves the enemy.
In fact, in the Gospel of John and in the writings of Paul, the word "flesh" is used to describe that which is opposed to God (see John 1:10-13 or Romans 7:5 or 1 Corinthians 3:2-3). And yet, God uses that which is opposed to God, human "flesh", to reveal Godself and reconcile the world. To say it another way, God came in the form of flesh, a enemy of God, in order to bring peace and reconciliation.
Can you do that? Can you incorporate your enemy into yourself so that you can bring reconciliation?
I have yet to meet anyone who could do that sans the Holy Spirit of God in Christ.
God creates a world in which even that which is opposed to God becomes the source of healing and reconciliation.
Which brings us back to poop.
The world is set up so that even that which we recoil at and deem as "waste" can in fact bring healing.
*As a side note, when I shared this idea of fecal matter transplants with a church member, she pondered "if we would be more willing to accept other people's poop rather than being so full of our own poop, we could all be healed?"