Deity and the Dentist

Through a set of circumstances far to lengthy and boring to write on this blog, I found myself at the dentists this morning for the first time since 2006.  I learned two valuable lessons: without proper care your teeth will decay and that belief is a far greater motivator for me than fear.

My last dental visit ended with a "doom and gloom" declaration from my inexperienced dentist as he told me I would likely loose all my teeth by my middle age.  That gripped me, I carried a great weight around with me for a while and felt really bad about the decisions I had made.  But as tight as that fear gripped me, it only brought momentary change.  Eventually life got busy and I felt I was now taking pretty good care of my teeth, so that powerful fear withered.  Inevitably, once I was no longer afraid of losing my teeth, I again picked up the habits which were so detrimental to them.

Flash forward to January 23rd, 2012 and I found out that the month or two of better teeth care really hadn't saved my teeth after all.  There I sat again, listened to a dentist drone on about cavities, decay, flossing, and so on...  but this visit ended differently.  The dentist sat me down and instead of talking down to me like a child being scolded by his parent, he gently broke the hard reality that one of my teeth was "beyond saving".  After that he said, "other than that you need some work, but with that work, and a change in habits, you can expect to have your teeth the rest of your life."  That gave me hope; he believed that I could make the change and helped me to see just how necessary it was.  Because of that hope, I sit here more willing than I have ever felt to quit drinking pop (soda), and not just for a few months, but to actually make a life change.

Just as fear of losing my teeth was only motivating until I no longer had a dentist reminding me of it, so also if I only stop sinning because I fear being caught, I will continue in all of my sins that I feel I will get away with.  I think this is a mindset that plagues the contemporary Christian community.  Our issue comes from a few different directions:
1.  I believe that I can get away with some sin, therefore I must either not believe God is omniscient/omnipotent, or I believe that God's judgement is not worthy.
2.  I believe that the opinion of people is the basis for reality.
3.  I do not understand/believe that sin is actually destructive.

But as sure as my teeth are decaying through poor hygiene habits, our souls will decay from poor spiritual habits as well.  You may not see it immediately as I do not with my teeth, but as a chapel speaker reminded me today, "Your sin will always find you out."  God's hatred of sin is not just a nominal thing, but it is because sin causes real destruction and pain, and until we take up the spiritual disciplines it will decay our soul, blurring the line between moral and immoral, righteous and unrighteous, sinful and Godly, truth and falsehood.

So today at the dentist I learned far more valuable life lessons than just how to keep my pearly whites... I was reminded of the importance of spiritual disciplines.