June is here and it always marks the halfway point of the year. By now many of us have come to the realization that our New Year’s resolutions weren’t that important and really, who needs to go swimming anyway? So I don’t have a six pack, but I do have my wit and charm! That will have to do me for now there is always next year to work on that six pack.
I had to have oral surgery on a tooth yesterday and needless to say, anytime you use the word “surgery” in a sentence to describe an activity, it’s going to be a tough day. After my second root canal on the tooth, the infection in my gum persisted to stay, and even with four different antibiotics, the infection lingered. My dentist gave me a sedative to numb the area where the surgery would be done (and before it was over I had five stitches in my gum.) But the time you sit and wait for the area to get numb, you have nothing special to do. The assistant asked me if I would like to look at a magazine while we wait for the area to get numb, as if looking at People’s magazine with all the celebrities with their perfect bodies smiling at me with their perfect white teeth is going to take my mind off what’s coming. Please. Sooner than what I want the dentist returns scalpel in hand and as he leans my chair back to start the procedure he says to me, “If you feel any pain let me know.” And all I could think to myself was, believe me you will be the first one to know!
I couldn’t help but notice before he began to cut the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams was playing on the speaker above me and I had to let out a laugh. Happy? Really? That is the last song I need at this time. Happy? I am not feeling like clapping along now. Not now I am about to have oral surgery on a tooth that I have had not one but two root canals done on. As I began to open my mouth to surrender to the surgeon, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart a verse from Hebrews 12:2 “Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” I finally got it. The surgery was necessary to get rid of the infection. I had to look past the surgery to the eventual healing. So many times we focus on the trial, the hard times, not realizing what they are doing for us. Jesus went to the cross, not for the cross’s sake but for ours. The joy that kept him moving from the garden to the cross was us, his creation being reconciled back to the father! What a Savior, what a God! If I was going to save the tooth I had to have this oral surgery. I must focus on the healing and not on the surgery that will get me there. As I felt the pressure from the scalpel on my gum and I knew a cut was being made, I chose to listen to the song that was playing over the speaker above me, instead of what I knew was happening. I have to say I was truly happy, and if I could have, I would have put my hands together and clapped along with the song…. Happy, happy, happy!!!! We serve a great God who makes no mistakes with us, He knows what is best for us and He knows how to get us there!
Feeling happy, Pastor Rick