I hate the dentist. My teeth have always been ganked up. When I went in for braces to the tooth-manipulator (orthodontists and dentists are equally disturbing) as a bonus gave me a palate splitter (it’s as bad as it sounds) and a herbst device (spelling?). I’ve always had lots of cavities. When you look at an x-ray of my teeth I am like Darth Vader, more artificial than natural. I haven’t been to the dentist since I’ve been in Tulsa; I know – I’m bad. Why did I finally go? Bethany. When would I have gone on my own? When the pain of the tooth outweighed the fear of the dentist.
God is a dentist, a surgeon. He will not relent till we are whole. Our suffering is one of His scalpels. C.S. Lewis stated it this way:
The more that we believe that God hurts only to heal, the less we can believe that there is any use in begging for tenderness. A cruel man might be bribed – might grow tired of his vile sport – might have a temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits of sobriety. But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless. But is it credible that such torture should be necessary for us? Well, take your choice. The tortures occur. If they are unnecessary, then there is no God or a bad one. If there is a good God, then these tortures are necessary. For no even moderately good Being could possibly inflict or permit them if they weren’t.
So why run toward a God who is so intolerable of the ugliness within me that secretly I wish to keep intact? My fear of God is mingled with pure and sinful motivations, it is not all holy. Lewis went on to write, “What do people mean when they say, ‘I am not afraid of God because He is good’? Have they never been to a dentist?” If I only run to him when the pain is intolerable is this God glorifying?
But what if along with the pain of the tooth I saw the excellency of the dentist? Such was the case upon this visit. He seems to be a good Christian man. Small talk was avoided and we went straight to religion, church, etc. I like the man, thank you Dawn for introducing us. God glorifying repentance is not had simply when we hate our sin, but when we behold the glory of our God and bid Him have His way with us. The suffering of the cross is real, but those who are Christ’s have counted the cost; and because we have tasted of His beauty we cry out like Hudson Taylor, “I never made a sacrifice”. I embrace the pain because of the gain.
No Other Boast 