SPIRITUAL AFFAIR IN THE DENTIST CHAIR

(My dentist told me I needed a crown. I was like, "I know, right?!")

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“Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day…” --2Timothy 4:8

Several months ago, I had to get a root canal. Before that, I knew something was wrong because one of my front teeth had been darkening over the years and seemed to be getting darker, so I decided to not put off checking on this issue any longer. Little did I know that the process would take quite a few visits and procedures to get this issue corrected. How could one tooth cause so much trouble? Oh, but it did, and I could not help but think how all this reminds me of what can happen when we let sin linger. Dark and Ugly How did I know something was wrong? My tooth was dark, gray (almost black), and ugly. Thankfully, I did not have any pain associated with this throughout the years, but it was obvious that something was wrong and required some attention. I had been asked what caused my tooth to turn fifty shades of gray, and all I can remember is accidently getting bumped in the mouth by a sibling when we were little. I was not completely sure if that was the cause, but those in the dental field that I talked to mentioned that incidents like this was very common. They also stated that it was also common for the evidence of any such damage may not appear until many years later.

This is not dissimilar to how undealt with sin or other spiritual issues can come about in our lives. Sometimes we have no concrete proof of how certain things transpired, but the results of those issues are still evident and may not come front and center until years down the road. Once the sin or issue comes to the surface, there is no denying that something is wrong and must be handled before things get even worse. Even if that something is not a person’s fault directly—childhood tragedy, generational strongholds, etc.—it may be up to them to address it, especially once it is understood that things will only get worse with time. Is There a Dentist in the House? There was not enough tooth brushing, flossing, or gurgling that I could have done to take care of my dark tooth. There was nothing that I could do myself with this problem because me being able to see that something was apparently wrong and knowing that something needed to be done was the extent of my knowledge of this situation. So, since dentistry expertise is not part of my personal arsenal of skills, I contacted those with the necessary experience to handle this so that my tooth could get to where it needed to be.

Have you ever been at a place when you knew that you needed help with a sin that you were dealing with because it was too big of an issue for you to fix it on your own? Actually, dealing with sin at any level requires help, but sometimes we can make the issue much bigger by not tackling it as needed. We can only do so much disguising and putting off working on it. And when that no longer works and we get tired of faking it until we make it, it is time to call in someone (the Lord) who knows how to get down to the bottom of the problem. We can be very appreciative that the Lord is an expert in all matters of life, and we can come to Him for the most tangled, deep-rooted situation no matter how long it has been since the problem started. But first, we have to make the decision to come to Him. Unlike the dentist, God knows at all times when we need help. But like the dentist, He will not force His help on us. And the X-Ray Says… After I took it upon myself to investigate the truth behind my decaying tooth, the first step at my appointment was to get x-rays. It was revealed that indeed something needed to be done and soon, and that something was a root canal. Therefore, another appointment was made so that the root canaling procedure could begin. I also discovered that I had a cavity, so that had to be corrected first. My fun times at the dentist office were just about begin.

Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” When you begin to ask the Lord for help with your sin, you must give way to His method of how He decides to deal with it. This can begin with a full examination. God always knows every intricate detail of everyone’s sin and spiritual struggles, so in reality the examination is really for us to get the true picture of what is really going on. God is still a miracle working God, but in His infinite wisdom He still understands that an immediate remedy may not be the best solution. Therefore, the road toward spiritual recovery may have to be revisited one or more times. Also, similar to my newly discovered cavity, we may find out about other things that may need attention along the way. Interesting how sins in one area can uproot sins in another area. Are We Building a House or What? After the cavity was taken care of in one visit, the root canal procedure began in a separate visit. The dentist pulled out so many tools that I thought we were about to head to a construction site. I did not have a clue about what it was going to take to get my tooth in healing mode. But I am so glad that my eyes and mouth are positioned where they are on my face because I do not think that I would have been able to stomach all that was going on while the dentist was doing his magic. Just seeing each tool, including the needle that provided me with anesthesia, had me thinking about a way of escape. To be honest, drilling at the dentist does not bother me, but my goodness! But anyway, the toolbox was needed for my tooth repair. I’ll pose this question again: How could one tooth cause so much trouble?

Anyone who has been through God’s process of spiritual delivery knows that He can do the works in order to restore us to a place of spiritual health. It may seem like He is pulling out all of the stops to get us to restoration, but He knows what is best to take care of our various sinful conditions. He may use something like ‘anesthesia’ help with the pain that is to come while the spiritual surgery is taking place. This is a lot like the grace and mercy that the Lord gives us to handle the cutting away that He may do when sin needs to be removed from our lives. And do not forget the ‘drilling’ that He is sure to do when He has to go down deep to clean out the dirty areas that sin creates. You get the idea. Reconstruction is never the fun part, but it is so necessary. No Pain, No Gain Y’all, when the anesthesia wore off while I was home, the pain was too much to bear. OMG!! I thought that I had experienced pain before, but this was pain on a whole new level. All my attention was focused on nursing my aching—or shall we say throbbing—tooth, and that included sleeping on my couch that reclines as an attempt for some form of comfort. All in all, I was completely miserable. While I am so thankful for the invention of medication, medicine could only do so much. But overall, I understood that the pain had to run its course, and this lasted for a few days.

God’s grace is always sufficient, but that does not mean that grace will take away all pain. Matter of fact, lots of pain may be exhibited throughout the path that leads to healing from our sins. No matter its severity, we must allow the pain to end in its own timing. Pain can be a great reminder that the situation at hand—the sin and the gateway to healing—should not be taken lightly. Meaning, whether we do or not, God views sin as a big thing. So big, that Jesus died an excruciating death because of our sins. The pain that He endured was necessary to remove the sting of death and for us to be reconciled back to God. And once Jesus's pain was over, we had the opportunity for a wonderful and abundant life. We Shall Wear a Crown Over the course of getting my tooth to a state of normalcy, I had many dentist appointments and a bill that I am still paying. As indicated, God may not instantly speak a word and heal us on the spot, physically nor spiritually, but His healing ability is just the same. And like my existing dentist bill, even after the Lord heals us, there still may be a cost associated with the sin that caused much damage in our lives. Not because we have to ‘pay’ God for what He has done for us (we could never do that, by the way), but more so because there is a cost for sinning against Him. And some of us are left with scars and other things that help to remind us of what God delivered us from. I have a small ‘hump’ on the back of my restored tooth. I think of this as a reminder that a lot had to happen to get my tooth to where it is now.

By way of a root canal, my dentist removed all the yucky stuff that was making my tooth darken, and God has the awesome ability to remove our sinful stains. And once I was at the point of the fitting of my crown for my tooth, it meant that I was coming to the end of all the office visits for this problem. We will never not need the Lord, but we can rejoice in the fact that the difficult course to a restored relationship with Christ does not and will not last forever. Once the entire dental process was complete, my tooth was no longer dark and the nagging pain was no longer there. If we belong to Christ, one day we will cross over into eternity where there will be no more darkness and no more pain, and even better yet we will receive a crown of righteousness.