It's Like Pulling Teeth

I've had this annoying feeling lately that finally subsided on Tuesday. That "it's gonna have to happen, you might as well do it and get it over with" feeling. Hello, my name is Aaron and I had a bad molar. The thing was horrible; dying in fact. It was riddled with decay and needed to be taken out. Small pieces were slowly leaving the area and all that was left was part of a tooth trying to hang on to an infected root. It's all dental jargon, really. I'm just saying how it felt and looked.

However, next to the molar, was a wisdom tooth that really wasn't all that smart. It fit the perfect description of something that knew no direction. It wasn't growing up or down, it wasn't trying to expose itself through the gum....it was growing sideways. Directly sideways. It had the bad molar up against a wall pushing it until I had to finally make the decision that it needed to go. The sideways behavior of a tooth finally helped me overcome my sideways behavior of getting rid of it. I didn't want to make a decision about it because I knew it would be painful and who wants missing teeth anyway? It's not like it's Biblical and causing me to sin, THEREFORE, I should rid myself of it. Or is it? I'm holding on to something just to hold onto it? IT'S A TOOTH!! for crying out loud.

Today, Friday, both teeth are missing and I think, healing. To get to the comfort of being able to chew on both sides of your mouth means having to deal with temporary pain. I just finished reading Rob Bell's book, "Jesus Wants To Save Christians", and reading the book wasn't exactly like pulling teeth but it had a few throbs and pains along the way. Living sideways is a normal habit because if we commit to a direction, we have to stick to it. It feels easier to lay low. There's that feeling that I want to grow, I want to burst out and move up and be seen and then there are those times where life puts us back in our place and we're growing sideways. Bell talks about exile and freedom, mainly referring to our Old Testament heritage, and how eventually the oppressed became free and became the oppressors and finally Jesus, after we couldn't seem to do the job, had to become the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom......there is pain for the cost of being able to chew on both sides of your mouth, to be able to do the things we want and wish to do and have the opportunity to decide if we want to be FREE or do we just want to grow sideways.

Maybe, there is wisdom in the wisdom tooth after all!? There is hope for the lost...and the sideways.

What's YOUR tag say?

If you were old enough in the late 80's to know how to ankle-roll your jeans and know the difference between Debbie Gibson and Tiffany and went to a Church of Christ, then you probably just rolled your eyes and put a little smile on your face reading the title. Acappella Vocal Band's single, "What's Your Tag Say?", was a bash on all of the brand-name hype when it came to our exterior look. A certain type of jeans, shirt and shoes could literally place you in a whole different class of people. We were/are that shallow back then. Who am I kidding? We still are, but that's not why I titled this blog what I did.

My new job puts me on the road to completely new territory for me. I've literally been from one corner of Tennessee to the other and, as of next Tuesday, I will have been to all four corners. Most of the scenery is beautiful and I'm continually amazed at God's creation and how beautiful it looks here. On my way up to Northeast Tennessee, I had to take Interstate 81 north of Knoxville. On the side of the road, during the day in the middle of the week, were a group of prisoners who were cleaning up the highway. Normally, you can identify a prison worker by someone who is wearing orange gear so that they stand out and don't mix in with the grass and trees. For the first time though, I saw something besides just the orange jumpsuit.

The first prisoner was kind of seperated from the rest of the group but had a deputy or some kind of official keeping an eye on him. On the back of his shirt was a black glob of something that you couldn't make out from a distance. As you got closer, the glob became words and quickly became readable:  "I Am A Drunk Driver". There wasn't the "Hello, my name is Bob and I'm a drunk driver" or "I'm sorry for my mistake but I'm a drunk driver." Just five words...the identifier (I) followed by the adjective (drunk) and then the noun (driver). I'm not sure which word has the bigger impact. Drunk? Driver? I?

Every person that drove by I-81 on that day saw this man and his other orange jumpsuit mates. They all had the same shirts with the same labels and they were all drunk drivers. It was fitting that they were there to clean up garbage on the side of the road. Perhaps, there may have been some empty beer cans or bottles. The irony is that the bottles would have been their own. It's easy to judge these men and their unwillingness to use common sense and listen to the message that we've been hearing for years to not drink and drive. The moment you pass judgement, though, God immediately decides to bring some irony of his own and ask what YOUR orange jumpsuit says. They've been tagged as drunk drivers and there's no need to know their names or why they did it or maybe they were coming back from a wedding and, for the first time in their life, they had one too many. They've just been tagged...drunk driver.

My tag is Aaron. I'm a sinner. I've made poor decisions. I'm sure I've done more things to hurt God than help and I try to pray for his forgiveness and mercy every day. I don't have to wear my tag for everyone to see like those prisoners did but God knows what our tag says. He also has the power to take our orange jumpsuits, put some cleansing bleach on them and make them white as snow. The hard part is remembering that God forgives those who love him. The easy part is wondering what people see when they look at me. Are people able to read my tag? Do they see "child of God" or do they just see the latest mistake I've made? Forgiveness and mercy are awesome and make all of our tags pleasant and readable. So....what's YOUR tag say?