At times we don’t want to admit something is wrong with us.
I had that happen recently when we went down to Tennessee to visit my parents and attend a conference. I was bothered by some tooth pain every once in a while, but the feeling passed and I just tried not to worry about it.
We got to the conference on Monday and enjoyed the speaker and meeting other pastors (and some of their spouses) that evening. Again, a little pain…and I wasn’t feeling like myself.
On Tuesday morning, I had swelling that was noticeable and I really didn’t feel well. I popped a few ibuprofen and sat through the teaching sessions. In the afternoon, we decided I’d better text a friend back in Volga who worked for a dentist (we didn’t have a new dentist yet since we just moved here around January 1).
She graciously texted back and forth and showed the dentist pictures of my swollen jaw.
With that evidence, they were able to prescribe antibiotics out of state and we picked them up later that day. They also directed me to take 800 mg of ibuprofen every 6 hours for pain.
I could really feel it when the pills wore off, and my swelling got worse before it got better.
I wondered if I could make it until the next Monday when I could get in to see this new dentist, but I moved forward each day hoping for the best.
I hoped maybe the antibiotics would take care of it and I wouldn’t need a root canal when I got home, but I tried to prepare myself for that possibility. I had gotten a filling in that tooth before we moved away from Platte and the dentist there had warned me about the possibility of needing a root canal at some point in the future.
It seems that time had come.
Sure enough, after an exam and x-rays on Monday, the dentist referred me to another place in Watertown to have a root canal. I had mixed feelings about how soon they could get me in, but I agreed to show up on Wednesday for the procedure.
I really psyched myself out before I got there. I felt anxious and a bit teary on the way. Once I got there, I tried to act calm, but my insides were doing all sorts of strange things. After they gave me the novocaine, I felt my heart pounding for several minutes while I tried to breathe deeply and calm down (thankfully, it stopped its jumping pretty quickly).
I took my earbuds along and listened to a podcast while they were working on me. With my eyes closed, I could almost pretend I wasn’t there.
I heard the drill and felt a little pressure, but I felt absolutely no pain. It was over in less than an hour and I was on my way home again (trying not to drool because of my numb face).
The experience got me thinking about how important it is to get to the root of things in other areas of our lives.
Sometimes we feel pain in a relationship or we don’t feel good about something going on in our lives, but we try to ignore it. We hope the situation will get better without doing anything, or we numb the pain however we can.
We may struggle with a certain sin that we just can’t seem to let go. It festers and poisons us, but we pretend it isn’t there.
If I hadn’t started taking antibiotics for my tooth abscess, the infection could have spread to other parts of my body and caused some serious complications.
When we don’t address the sin and/or emotional pain in our lives, the negative effects of that can spread to other areas of our lives and cause serious complications in our relationships, our emotional health, and our spiritual health.
We need to let Jesus get to the root.
He may help us get rid of the problem completely, or he may show us who we need to go to so we can get the help we need.
My tooth was dead when I got to the endodontic office on Wednesday. It needed to be hollowed out and filled with something better so the tooth could stay in my mouth.
The Holy Spirit can help us get to the root of the problems in our lives. He’ll extract all the dead and poisonous thoughts and actions, and he’ll help us replace them with life-giving beliefs and convictions.
Now that’s something to smile about!
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8 NIV)
Have you ever tried to ignore a sin or problem in your life? How can focusing on God help you get to the root of things?