A little over a week ago I left the
beautiful Nicaragua and made my way to Costa Rica for month three as a squad leader
for the October 2010 “S” squad. Unfortunately before I left there I found myself yet again in a dentist
office getting something fixed that wasn’t right in my mouth. For those who don’t know 
me ever since
I knocked my teeth out when I was sixteen I have had problems with my
teeth.
So I was in the process of getting
a root canal after all the teams had departed to the next designated
country. While I was sitting in
the dentist chair for two hours I had some time to pray, think, process. You name it I was sitting there with my
mouth open, contraptions somehow connected to my tooth and drool steadily
flowing out the right side of my mouth. I know can you picture it? Well please don’t.
So I began to think. My mind began to walk through what the
process of how my tooth got this
way. At one point I had healthy teeth. At one point there was no pain. There was no reason for me to question that my tooth was bad. Then all of a sudden one day there was
pain in my tooth. Now I know it
didn’t just show up unhealthy one day. The more I ignored the pain the more it was affecting not only me but
affecting those I lived life with. But the thing is it was a process. That my healthy tooth gradually was becoming rotten. More then likely from the caramel apple
suckers I eat, but then again there is no way we can blame it on those. At this point I was told that we need
to get to the root of this problem. The only way that this problem is going to be fixed is if we get the
root out and replace it.
Then the Lord began to speak to me these
racers, you, myself are all in this process. We are on 
this journey and we are all rooted in things. At one point your root started out
healthy. Then life happens and
decay begins. Most of the time we
ignore that it is happening and then the next thing we realize the decay has found
itself to the decay. In most
situations if we catch it before it gets to the root then we can avoid the
process of the root canal. But for
some reason like my tooth we let it build and the next thing we realize is that
it needs to be replaced.
A root canal is not an enjoyable
process. Not only are you already
feeling pain but the process to replace the root is painful as well. While I was sitting with the dentist
she told me, “to raise my hand if I felt any pain.” And then proceeds to tell me that when she went through
dentistry school the students had
to operate on each other without anesthetic
so they would know how their patient’s pain might feel like. While she was sharing this story I
couldn’t help but relate it to our heavenly Father.
He has been there. He sees this problem forming in our
lives. We do anything to ignore it
because we feel like it might just go away. Then before we know it, it is causing us pain and it has
gotten to a point of affecting how we live our life. The Lord then tells us, “it needs to be replaced, but don’t worry
I know how it feels. There is
going to be pain but let me know. This is going to be best thing for you.”
I just sit there in amazement of
our Father. He knows us inside and
out. He knows our pain. He lives out our pain. He is asking us to live it with him. Not alone but with him. What’s the root in you that needs to be
replaced?
