Because of that, I usually avoid the going to dentist at all costs. Come to think of it, cost also has a good deal to do with why I generally steer clear of road signs directing me to anyone bearing the initials "D.D.S.".
Call me crazy, but I don't normally look for ways to lose money and endure pain at the same time.
What is the cost? Great.
How will it feel? Not so good.
Count me in!
One of my favorite things that the dentist tends to ask is, "How are you feeling?" Not so good, actually, you've got a drill in my mouth and I'm just praying that the needle you shoved into my gums not too long ago does its job and keeps me numb.
Maybe they're asking the wrong question. Maybe (ok, probably) the reason I'm there at the dentist has more to do with setting my disheveled mouth back in order than it has to do with my momentary comfort.
But notice, I said "momentary comfort," because what I hope and expect to gain from this momentary discomfort--or, in the words of Paul, "this momentary affliction"--has everything to do with my future comfort, my future health, and my future happiness.
Dentally, I don't want to be like my dad, whose teeth betray him like Julius Caesar's good buddy Brutus on a daily basis. It's time to take action now, while there's still time to save my 32 teammates.
All this to say that the more serious our situation, the more we will be willing to give up to fix it.
Think about it like this: I don't remember ever throwing a cooler full of drinks and food overboard from my parent's ski boat, but then again, I've never been in the middle of the Arctic Ocean with a glacier-shaped hole in the hull of said sea-going vessel.
When God comes to us--when the eternal Word takes on flesh--He finds us in dire straights. We don't just need a cleaning or a filling--we need oral surgery. We don't just need to gas up the ski boat, our vessel is damaged beyond repair, the band is playing and we're out of life boats.
And that, my friends, is uncomfortable news. Oh, how comfortable it would have been if the dentist would have told me that my mouth is awesome and I don't need any work! But that would be a hateful and cowardly dentist who would deliver such false news, and my teeth would continue to decay and die.
Thank God that He is not hateful and cowardly. He not only delivered the bad news--"You must be born again to inherit the kingdom", "You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked," "You were alienated and hostile in mind"--He himself became the Good News.
"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."
In Christ, we have One who came and joined us in our suffering. More than that, He became the worst and lone truly innocent victim of human suffering. Or, as Isaiah had said so long before, "with his stripes, we are healed."
Is this an offensive message? Does what God says about your sin offend you? Good, because it's supposed to.
4 comments:
When I received the "Bad" news that my tooth was a gonner, I was depressed, but I knew I had to act now! I did. And like Christ says," The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike". I bit into a popcorn kernel and wham-mo....there went another one. I had a tooth taken out as a kid so that left me with 29 players on the team with 2 (implants and crowns) to be named later...
in March. I submitted and now I have no more pain!....
Christ meeting us only when we admit that we are broken? Sounds like the gospel to me! We are only the people of God when we submit to the word of God.
Just came across a line in "Eat this Book", by E. Peterson:
"The Scripture stories do not, like Homer's, court our favor, they do not flatter us that they may please us and enchant us -- they seek to subject us, and if we refuse to be subjected we are rebels."
Pretty sweet stuff...
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