At first it was just uncomfortable enough to be uncomfortable – more of a sensitivity than anything. A few days later, I couldn’t take a sip of room temperature water without searing pain shooting through my tooth. A few months prior, I had the tooth in question “worked on”. After noticing a small crack, my dentist took a proactive effort to keep it from breaking by removing the bottom half of my tooth and capping it. I believe the technical term is partial crown. I’m actually disturbed even writing this as I’ve always assumed, once my teeth start failing, it would be a quick descent into diapers and dentures. As an aside, I’m really happy there are people out there who like teeth enough to work on them all day but I don’t even really like talking about them. It’s a thing. So, when I noticed the pain, I chose blissful ignorance and actively invented all sorts of explanations for the discomfort.
When I could no longer ignore the obvious truth that there was something wrong, my first trip to the dentist went surprisingly well. X-rays showed no major problems and the dentist applied “desensitizing gel” to an area of my gum that had recessed, leaving her to assume it was the source of the pain. I left feeling like I got off easy and assumed once the gel took effect, I’d be able to move on with life as normal. It didn’t. And I couldn’t. Back to the dentist I went, this time leaving with the number for a local endodontist, the dentist’s admission that something may have gone wrong with the crown and the unfortunate news that I might have to consider a root canal if things didn’t improve over the next few days. They didn’t. And I did.
No one likes suffering. I’d dare say that we humans are growing increasingly adverse to discomfort of any kind. Perhaps it’s a natural result of the development of our world, all its efficiencies and the ease with which we are able to function on a daily basis. We want things easy. We want them fast. And we want them as painless as possible. I am very much included in the “we”. I wanted an easy fix to my tooth problem. I wanted it fast (like yesterday). And I wanted the end to my pain.
Due to a cancellation, I was able to get an appointment that very afternoon. By early that evening, I was on the other side of an hour-long procedure I wouldn’t care to repeat and in desperate need of a healthy dose of Advil. The procedure wasn’t particularly easy, it wasn’t fast and I was in more pain than when I entered the office – but the suffering now had entirely new meaning. The infection had been cleared, the tooth had been repaired and I was told I’d soon be feeling myself again. The pain now had a purpose and that changed everything about my response to enduring it. It was now welcomed because I knew I was moving in the right direction. What if we looked at all of our suffering this way?
“affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint” Romans 5: 4-5
Do you know how a root canal works? Because I didn’t, and as adverse as I am to tooth talk, I find this rather fascinating. Each root of your tooth is filled with something called pulp and that is what can become infected. During a root canal, the endodontist cleans the pulp out of each root, washes it with some type of disinfectant and then backfills it with an artificial substance. Considering how tiny the root of a tooth is, I find that incredible. Who ever thought to do that in the first place?
I recently got an email from someone cancelling their attendance at a work event due to needing emergency dental care. This person was a complete stranger to me but I responded and wished her well, knowing how that kind of pain can take over and make doing life impossible. It’s a beautiful side effect of suffering – new understanding of others crosses and a softer, more compassionate heart..
No one would argue the reality that suffering changes us. It has a way of creeping into the tiniest crevices of our souls and can either leave us rooted in despair or be the unexpected path to healing we didn’t know we needed. It’s human nature to avoid suffering, to deny we need help and to try all sorts of desensitizing gels to numb the pain. We are great on our own – until we’re not. The simple truth is, we were never meant to endure all things solo. We were created to unite our suffering with the only One who can make sense of it. He’s waiting to help carry the cross and crown our suffering. We just need to trust, to hope and bow low enough for Him to reach us.
