Monthly Archives: September 2014

As Fun as a Root Canal

Posted on by

Recently I drove to the Chicago area to visit my regular dentist. Actually there’s nothing regular about him, since he’s a specialist in root canals. Normal mouths don’t have a “regular” root canal man, and I’m not proud to say this procedure was my sixth.

Admittedly, the process is less of an ordeal than it used to be in the ‘70’s with those pin-like screws being hand-turned into the nerve and then yanked out again and again. Today’s specialist labored behind magnifying goggles and worked on my tooth with power tools through the eye of a microscope.

After 90 minutes of having had my mouth open, I was finally standing at the front desk with the doctor. “Here are two packets of quadruple strength ibuprofen. Take one right now. Also, I’m giving you a prescription for Vicodin, should you need it. And because we found so much infection, you’ll have to take antibiotics for a while.” He shook my hand and told me to have a nice afternoon.

I thought about my poor, battered tooth. A back molar, it had faithfully done its job without complaint until a couple of months ago when a dull ache started calling for my attention. When I didn’t respond, the ache grew worse and swelling started in the gums, along with occasional sharp pangs. While I was still thinking I hadn’t flossed well enough, an abscess had taken hold. And today the raw truth came out.

Nothing stays hidden forever. God says he’ll bring everything into the open one day, all of our secrets. Nothing escapes his notice, and eventually he’ll prove it to us by showing us (and others) what’s been going on “in the dark.” How goofy to think we could ever pull the wool over God’s eyes or sneak under his radar.

Just recently I learned a friend’s husband had taken up with a woman at his office. He’d kept the relationship under wraps until recently when, against his will, the truth came out, breaking my friend’s heart and destroying their marriage. He thought he could live with one foot in each world, keeping secrets from both women.

To live uprightly when no one’s watching is God’s challenge for all of us every day. Just as he saw my abscess hiding deep in my jaw in its early stages, he sees every choice we make and each action we take, even “in the dark.” For some, the consequences of revealed secrets may be so severe, they’ll long for the simplicity of 90 minutes with the root canal doctor.

“Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, ‘Who sees us? Who will know’?” (Isaiah 29:15)

Lookin’ Good!

Posted on by

This afternoon Mary and I talked about the ravages of time on our old faces and the magic of plastic surgery. Not that we’d do it, even though the mirror says we should. (It’s easier just to avoid the mirror.) But this afternoon we participated in a face lift of a different sort. The two of us put fresh upholstery on eight dining room chairs, a simple way to “lift” a room.

Upholstery staple gunTo be successful required the right tools. Factory-tightened screws can be difficult to loosen, and succeeding assumes you’ve got the right screwdriver. You also need a staple gun, a tool that doubles as a weapon of mass destruction. Keeping a hammer handy is good for staples that don’t go all the way in, and a pliers is effective in yanking out the hopeless ones. A box of Band-Aids isn’t a bad idea, either.

Upholstery staple rejectsDoing something new is never easy, and trudging up the learning curve usually includes a measure of slip-backs: our chair corners ended up with too many folds; staples went in loosey-goosey and needed to be yanked out and redone; stray fabric peeked out from the chair frame, another re-do; one staple-shot grazed my finger and drew blood. But each chair we did got a bit easier and ended up looking nicer than the one before.

Isn’t that the way with life? When something new comes to us, particularly something we don’t want, we look for ways to step away from it. When we finally accept it, it’s usually not as bad as we anticipated. Practice may not make perfect, but working hard to learn something brings improvement.

God often asks us to do new things we don’t want to do, like love unlovable people, suffer intense pain, surrender a spouse or a child, care for someone who doesn’t appreciate it, or wait “forever” to see our prayers answered. But we can get better at handling each of God’s assignments by simply cooperating with his tutoring since he’s the great Supplier of know-how. As we tackle what he sends, little by little we work out the kinks.

Upholstery team workOf course God’s “chores” are far more complicated than fixing up old chairs, but Mary and I learned a few things as we went along. When we started out, our confusion, misuse of tools and lack of knowledge caused us to lose 45 minutes on the first chair. As we went along, there were set-backs and failures, but each cushion taught us better ways to do the same job. The last chair took only six minutes, start to finish. Gathered around the dining room table, our 22 year old chairs don’t show their age at all.

Now, if only Mary and I could use our improved stapling skills to give each other face lifts.

Jesus said, “Blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.” (Luke 11:28)

The rocks rock!

Posted on by

The desk where I sit and write becomes messy quickly and needs frequent de-cluttering. Even when I’ve filed all the papers, put the pens and glasses away and removed the dirty dishes, there’s one item that always stays: my Scripture rocks.

Scripture rocksWhen Nate and I first heard that his cancer would take his life, we resisted accepting what we’d been told. I remember the morning after his diagnosis. My sister Mary had rushed from the Chicago area to Michigan to do what she could, and that next morning I found a beach stone sitting atop my kitchen counter with her writing on it.

It was a Scripture passage meant to encourage both Nate and I, which it did. (“A Rocky Road,” October 10, 2009.) Two days later I found another rock, and over the next few weeks, nine more, always when we needed them most.

In addition to the Bible verses on each one, the stones were a continual reminder that our lives were built on the solid Rock, Jesus Christ. It helped to know when life became unstable, that this firm foundation would never be shaken.

California earthquakeEarlier this month northern California was rocked with the most significant earthquake in 25 years. Some people lost everything, and others were frightened by the continuing threat of further quake episodes.

Most of us walk around thinking we have a measure of control over our lives. In reality, it doesn’t take more than a few seconds to shake us badly, either physically (an earthquake) or emotionally (cancer). Both can come without warning. Both can snuff out lives. What, then, is unshakeable?

My Scripture rocks.

The words they represent have the power to remain standing through natural disasters, diseases and everything in between. From those verses, come some unshakeable guarantees: the Lord is a stronghold in times of trouble, a firm place to stand, my refuge, a strong tower, a Rock eternal; he wipes away my tears, restores my soul, puts a song in my mouth; he’ll never forsake me, will set me on a high rock, will not allow me to be shaken.

But we were shaken by Nate’s cancer, and the citizens of Christchurch were shaken by the earthquake. So are these verses lying? No. They’re describing truth that applies to our hearts, souls and minds, the real us. As Nate discovered during his last days, everything was taken from him except one thing: the Lord. Earthquake victims learned that same reality this week, and eventually we’ll all experience it.

Heart rockThis truth makes us tremble until we look at what Jesus said on Mary’s heart-shaped rock:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)