The Dentist’s Office (01/28/2025)

Yesterday I had to go to the dentist's office. On the drive over to the nearby town for my appointment, I must admit my mind came up with several reasons to turn back and phone in my regrets. Luckily, I didn’t surrender to any of them. When I walked into the office, I checked in at the front desk and then turned around to look for a seat. Everyone was looking at me with that empathetic stare. I could tell they didn’t want to be there either. And suddenly, I was filled with sympathy for my dentist who was just trying to help us all. And I thanked the LORD for dentists and for not being one.

Let’s face it. There are many things in life that we need, that are for our own good, but we don’t like them. I am prone to anemia, but, trust me, liver isn’t my go-to restaurant order. I want good roads to drive upon, but I do grumble every Tax Day. I want a clean house but that doesn’t mean I am an exemplary housekeeper; however, it is on my list of new year’s resolutions. There are numerous physical things in our lives that we are asked to do “for our own good” that we struggle with along the way.

And it makes sense that there are spiritual things we are asked to do “for our own good” that we also struggle with along the way. They all have to do with relationships – our relationship with our all-present and all-loving LORD and our relationships with one another.

But within us all is that “ego” – that “me first,” that little child that insists “but I don’t want to.” It’s part of who we are and what we must work to set down or at least to quieten a bit. We want the lives the LORD promises us if we love well, that’s not the issue. The issue is doing it moment to moment choosing the loving path every time.

Thankfully, we don’t have make this journey alone. The LORD promises to remain with us, to remain in us, if we remain in Him. The LORD promises His Spirit to guide us and strengthen us along the way for challenges if we open ourselves to His grace and cooperate with His will. Our Redeemer is “the Way and the Truth and the Life.” And we are also blessed by companions along the way, others who understand the struggle and who will walk with us a ways, encouraging us, even helping us, like the dentist's assistants and techs.

We know what we need to do. Let us pray daily for the grace to go where we need to go, to do what we need to do, to allow the love sown within our very being by our creator be the urging power within us rather than fear or selfishness. Let us show up for life and live it fully.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.