Chaplain Darren C. Tourville on cleansing the soul

Experiencing Lent as a Time for Growth

As children, many of us dreamed about what we would want to be as adults. Fireman, teacher, nurse, professional baseball player, etc… For some of us the vision changed often, but for others the dream remained. I don’t know about you personally, but every time I see a St. Louis Cardinal baseball game I envision the crowd cheering for me instead of Mr. Pujols (some dreams die slowly). This leads me to vocational choice #2—Trashman. I’ve always been fascinated with trash and its removal. I guess that is the obsessive compulsive side of me.

Where I grew up as a child we had a trash service that came by the house once a week and carried our filth away. I always took it as an honor to get the trash and put it out by the street and would hurry off the school bus to get the can and put it back in the garage. There was a certain sense of accomplishment in knowing our house was clean. (And yes, even today if you ask my wife I still have some of those obsessive qualities when it comes to trash and its removal).

Why would I use this reflection to talk about trash you ask? Simply put, we all have trash that affects us and we can’t get rid of it on our own. Like the people in Max Lucado’s The Next Door Savior, we all carry our bags of trash around daily burdened with the weight. Sure we ask God to take it from us, but often in our humanity we take it right back. We need a “Divine Trashman” who will take our filth to the dump for burial. Once it’s taken and dealt with it is remembered no more.

This Lenten season at its best is a time for introspection and change. May we as professional caregivers not forget our need for this type of cleansing. May we hear God say of our trash, “May I have it? And may you never feel it again.”

Do you have thoughts about spiritual development you’d like to share with your colleagues? Send an e-mail of any length to info@PlainViews.org.