I recently lost my last baby tooth.
I'm almost 40 years old and I had to have it taken out because It had a compromised filling which then chipped. The chip wasn't painful, just annoying so I ignored it for a while but was getting irritated at food getting jammed in there and making me not want to chew on my left side at all. Even taking the tooth out wasn't very painful - it was a baby tooth with very shallow roots. What followed the extraction however, was very painful... mostly on my bank account.
You see, Prior to last week, I hadn't been to the dentist in 3 years. Why? because I didn't want the hassle of hearing bad news about my teeth. I know, I'm brilliant! It didn't work as I had hoped. They decided to do a deep clean after extracting my tooth because, even with my fancy mechanical toothbrush and very occasional flossing, I wasn't able to take the level of care that they could have during those three years in hiding from dentists.
After my three visits to the dentist in one week (thanks to insurance not allowing them to do a full deep clean in one day) I treated myself to a local favorite restaurant of mine for lunch. When the cashier came to the counter and took my order I saw that she was very near toothless and her few teeth were rotted and looked like skinny rodent teeth. That didn't change my appetite by the way, but it did hit home the gospel of good dental hygiene that I had been hearing most of the week. And that made me reflect on the spiritual tooth, i mean Truth of what we often consider to be "benign neglect". ( I know "benign neglect" is a concept from other disciplines, but still a relevant idea.)
Too often we neglect the basic care of our souls and then find ourselves surprised when we reap the consequences. We arrogantly figure that we don't need to be in the word, going to church regularly, praying, sharing our faith, or giving generously because we sometimes don't see the value of those disciplines. They are sometimes downright hard work. It is more costly than we think to ignore these practices. Like failing to brush your teeth It can cause truth decay and we will begin to fail in discerning right and wrong. It can lead to caveat cavities formed by excuses for our behavior that we make.For example: "I'm too tired or busy..." "I can't..." "I don't like people there..." "i don't feel anything..." "I don't need ___________ (church, study, etc.) because i'm good enough already, or frankly don't like conviction." We don't see how that eats away at who God is trying to help us become. It's sometimes so slow and subtle that by the time we discover the issue, we more intentionally avoid dealing with it.
Trust me, your spiritual health is worth the time, energy, pain and even frustration to take care of. Don't put off your basic Christian disciplines for the sake of convenience or comfort. Let God inspect, scrap, clean, and polish you. So how do you do this? Here are some simple tips:
"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." - Philippians 1:6
I'm almost 40 years old and I had to have it taken out because It had a compromised filling which then chipped. The chip wasn't painful, just annoying so I ignored it for a while but was getting irritated at food getting jammed in there and making me not want to chew on my left side at all. Even taking the tooth out wasn't very painful - it was a baby tooth with very shallow roots. What followed the extraction however, was very painful... mostly on my bank account.
You see, Prior to last week, I hadn't been to the dentist in 3 years. Why? because I didn't want the hassle of hearing bad news about my teeth. I know, I'm brilliant! It didn't work as I had hoped. They decided to do a deep clean after extracting my tooth because, even with my fancy mechanical toothbrush and very occasional flossing, I wasn't able to take the level of care that they could have during those three years in hiding from dentists.
After my three visits to the dentist in one week (thanks to insurance not allowing them to do a full deep clean in one day) I treated myself to a local favorite restaurant of mine for lunch. When the cashier came to the counter and took my order I saw that she was very near toothless and her few teeth were rotted and looked like skinny rodent teeth. That didn't change my appetite by the way, but it did hit home the gospel of good dental hygiene that I had been hearing most of the week. And that made me reflect on the spiritual tooth, i mean Truth of what we often consider to be "benign neglect". ( I know "benign neglect" is a concept from other disciplines, but still a relevant idea.)
Too often we neglect the basic care of our souls and then find ourselves surprised when we reap the consequences. We arrogantly figure that we don't need to be in the word, going to church regularly, praying, sharing our faith, or giving generously because we sometimes don't see the value of those disciplines. They are sometimes downright hard work. It is more costly than we think to ignore these practices. Like failing to brush your teeth It can cause truth decay and we will begin to fail in discerning right and wrong. It can lead to caveat cavities formed by excuses for our behavior that we make.For example: "I'm too tired or busy..." "I can't..." "I don't like people there..." "i don't feel anything..." "I don't need ___________ (church, study, etc.) because i'm good enough already, or frankly don't like conviction." We don't see how that eats away at who God is trying to help us become. It's sometimes so slow and subtle that by the time we discover the issue, we more intentionally avoid dealing with it.
Trust me, your spiritual health is worth the time, energy, pain and even frustration to take care of. Don't put off your basic Christian disciplines for the sake of convenience or comfort. Let God inspect, scrap, clean, and polish you. So how do you do this? Here are some simple tips:
- Commit to regular check-ups - Attending church regularly (more than Christmas or Easter, more than once a month)
- Get an X-Ray - Ask God to search you and test you to see if there is any offensive way within you like the psalmist does in Psalm 139.
- Change your junk food intake - Shut off the TV, radio, and internet for just a day and take that time to start consuming healthy fare like reading your Bible just 5 minutes a day, listening to good worship music,
- Listen to the Great Physician - spend quality time in prayer not just talking about what you want, listen to what God wants.
- Then, exercise your faith. Pray for and look for chances to share your faith or serve someone else. That's right, I said "share your faith OR serve". Like baby steps, just put one foot in front of another, build up to whichever is more difficult. The goal is growth, not instant mastery.
"For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." - Philippians 1:6