Rev. Steve Foss, First Baptist Church Sun Lakes
I seem to have a problem with my teeth. You see, they are rotting from the inside! I brush my teeth. I floss my teeth. I use mouthwash regularly. Yet, I am stricken with this problem for the second time!
It was a simple bite into a nacho chip and, snap, my right front tooth broke. This problem is beginning to get under my skin—really irritating, if you know what I mean. It happened on a Friday night, so I immediately called my dental provider and left a message. She was willing to see me early on Saturday morning, which relieved me somewhat.
On Saturday morning, the dentist was only able to provide some temporary “fix” with non-permanent dental glue. I’m a public speaker. Going into my Sunday morning service the next day, I was not feeling very confident. At any moment I feared my teeth would fly out of my mouth, landing under the first row of seats, and the entire arena breaking out in laughter! It would definitely make an “impression”—just not the dental office kind of impression.
The dentist and I were able to come to an agreement on a treatment plan. And I am already fitted with two temporary front teeth. I’ve already been rehearsing this year’s preferred personal Christmas jingle: “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.” If it were not me at the center of the tragedy, I’d be laughing, too!
My emotional defense mechanisms have kicked in, and I have sunk into self-pity, wishing for a day when I can bite into another taste of nachos. But those days are now over. No more bite and tear, no more tastes of pizza with my front teeth. Now, I’m relegated to cutting my food into small bites for the rest of my life! Good grief! My mother cut my food into small bites when I was five. And now it’s come to this?!
In the Bible’s account of the Creation event, Eve could not wait to sink her teeth into the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Good and Evil. She observed that it looked very tasty. She had been warned by God to not eat the fruit from the tree or there would be severe consequences. Her teeth had not rotted from the inside, but after she took a bite from the fruit and offered it to her husband, both began to experience a rotting of the soul from within. The Bible says, “A sound mind makes for a robust body, but runaway emotions corrode the bones” Proverbs 14:30 (The Message).