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.