Imagine my surprise when I had no pain in my mouth and I was told almost all of my teeth had cavities in them. I was in shock. Especially when I saw the price tag was much more than we had in our bank accounts. I explained to the dental assistant that they must be mistaken because I had no pain. I went back to the dentist a week later for my cleaning. What she explained to me has had me thinking for a while now.
The dental assistant that cleaned my teeth warned me that since she was going to be cleaning out the cavities, I might start to experience pain that I hadn't previously noted from my cavities. She said that the decay and crud in my cavities were covered up the holes in my teeth and preventing me from feeling the pain that I should have felt from the problems with my teeth. She said when that crud was removed that I would be prone to pain until my root canals were completed and my cavities filled in.
Did you catch that? Due to my irresponsibility I had let crud come into my mouth and cover up the pain I should have felt from the absence of tooth material in my teeth. I started to think about this on a more spiritual level.
I thought about how we all have these God shaped holes in our hearts. We all have a desire to worship something, and we all fill that desire, that God shaped hole, with something. Once we fill it with something (ie money, success, popularity, sex, drugs, alcohol, careers, food, television, music etc) it doesnt quite satisfy us the way we thought it would, but it numbs us to that desire. It makes us feel like that hole is full. "Pay no attention to the gaping hole in my chest where the creator of the universe would like to reside".
Have you ever been shopping when you saw something you just had to have? You just knew with your innermost being that once you had that one item your world would be so much better and you would be so much happier? Then you get home, take it out of the bag and have that sinking feeling that that item isn't really going to change your life? Or maybe it makes you really happy for a while and then you start to think about something else that you just have to have.
Have you ever felt this despair that made you feel like something was missing in your life? Maybe you thought it was the spouse that would complete you. Maybe you felt alone. Have you ever felt alone in a room full of people? Once you fill it with a person its not so obvious on your brain. But it never really satisfies the way you think it will.
Have you ever sat in front of the tv to "numb out". Came home night after night and planted yourself in front of the tv so you could zone out and not think about things? Or spent all your spare time listening to music or watching music videos? It sure makes you feel like you are living a full life doesn't it?
These are all different coping mechanisms we have for filling our God-Holes. Some of us who don't know God use them to allow them self the life they want, or because they don't know the answer to that emptiness is the Lord. Some of us who know the Lord use it in place of spending time with the Lord and growing with him. Which one of those people are you? I know that I can certainly fill my devotional time with my favorite episode of X when the Lord calls me to him. Ummmm... what God Hole?
So as I realized that just like filling a cavity with crud and decay numbs me to the pain of my teeth problems, things like tv and friends can numb me from the pain of not spending time with my Lord. Are tv or friends inherently evil? No. But if I am using them as a distraction from time with the Lord they have become my idols. Just like little wooden carvings of calves I have made myself my own idol, and I am ashamed.
I have spent the last year going to the dentist once a week and sometimes more for appointments lasting upwards of 2/3 hours. One of my root canals took three different sittings to complete. I am ashamed of the state I have let my teeth come into. [oh trust me - i now floss at least every day, brush like a feign with my new oral b power brush, and go to the dentist for cleanings twice per year (i feel like i live there now)]
Are you living with cavities in your heart? Have you learned to ignore them because of the distractions that you have allowed into your life? I pray for you today that you will clean out the crud, fill up those holes with the Lord, and protect your heart in the future from potential distractions. Feel free to leave a comment or prayer request. :)
I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.
Psalm 119:15
No comments:
Post a Comment