What is the modern-day equivalent of foot-washing? It just might be changing someone else’s adult diaper. Let me back up and explain. My husband Russ is a hospice chaplain. He predominately is there to offer spiritual comfort and wisdom to terminal patients, their families, and their caregivers. He keeps the medical staff at hospice encouraged. But there are times he is asked to serve in menial tasks. A test of a true Christ-follower is whether or not they think these jobs are beneath them.
There are times when Russ gets called to deliver supplies to a family. Sometimes he brings them much needed palliative care medications. (We jokingly call him a drug runner!) Sometimes, he supplies adult diapers. But one time, the nurse needed physical help changing a male patient’s diaper. Russ said that wasn’t something they trained him to do. But it was his heart’s desire to practice othering, not his head knowledge, that took charge. This very personal task served the patient, and it aided the nurse.
How can we go about othering, when we don’t care what the task is?