Photo by Wurlitzer Heart
Today my son had a dentist appointment. To be fair, I don’t like going to the dentist. I don’t know many individuals who put going to the dentist on their ‘I can’t wait to do this’ list.
But my son really, really, really dislikes the dentist. I won’t share the full disclosure of our experience today. He did, at one point, grab the banister and shout, “You can’t make me go!!!” Perhaps that’s enough to frame a mental slide show of my son’s disdain for art of dentistry.
I tried to explain to him that ultimately, even though there is some discomfort during an actual dentist visit, the goal is to repair what has gone wrong. I don’t know if he actually heard me – even though that’s the goal of a good dentist (I’m not including the scary horror movie dentists which is an entirely different post).
Toothache pain often comes from not flossing or brushing enough; just as pain in life can sometimes come as a result of a string of bad choices. In the moments of life-pain I’ve found that often my first response is, “God, why did you put me here!?!” When in reality – my destination was the precise destination of my direction (see Andy Stanley’s book The Principle of the Path for a truly incredible read on this subject).
Before I continue, I do want to point out that sometimes truly awful things happen to incredibly Godly people (see the book of Job). I can’t explain those situations. But, just as with cavities, we often arrive in horrible situations as a result of our choices.
My post this week ends on an up-note though. Here’s the good news: God is a redeemer. He really is. He can take our busted up broken situations and work something truly remarkable from them. It will involve some time in the proverbial dentist chair though. The Bible states that, The Lord disciplines those He loves. Proverbs 3:12 (NIV) Or as Max Lucado once wrote, If God has you on His anvil it means He thinks you’re worth reshaping.
If you’re in the dentist chair, don’t lose heart. Keep showing up and trust God that He is with you and is at work in ways that we can’t possibly imagine.
Til next time,
DP