Relax (Adapted by my awesome wife, Kristy)

So I was at the dentist again today. They were drilling out a filling that needed to be replaced and well, let me just say it is not how I would have chosen to spend my Friday evening. But there I was, in the chair of torture, mouth agape, with power tools being forcefully used on my pearly whites. I was tense, nervously so, fists clenched, just lying there anticipating the dentist making a mistake, causing me to jerk if he gets too close to the nerve. You know the feeling, right?

So as I’m lying there with naught else to distract me but one seriously bright light and two masked “professionals,” I found my mind wandering to the place it usually goes when I happen to find myself in such predicaments…I began to conjure spiritual parallels.

As believers, we tend to be so cautious, nervous, even tense at times with our fists clenched because we’re unsure of what may or may not happen beyond our control. If we grant ourselves rest in such a time as this, sin might just come in, take over and we will begin to fear, harbor guilt, sense shame, etc. (I expect the degree of self-condemnation varies as widely as one’s preference for the proper way to eat an Oreo or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, but I digress). We are waiting, watching, with baited breath, clenched, tense fists and all and we are afraid! Afraid? Afraid of what? Come on people.

We serve a vengeful God. Not a vengeful-at-you-kind-of-God, but a vengeful-at-anything-that-can-destroy-YOU-kind-of-God. What am I trying to say here?

Don’t WORRY about SIN!

God freed us (that means you) from sin 2,000 some-odd years ago. Let go of your fears about sin. Worry instead about how amazing and loving our (that means your) God is. Otherwise, you will find yourself in a tight, tense, clinched-up state and in a constant place of fear, as if “a new creation” means nothing to you (yes, you).

So I came to the conclusion in the midst of my present struggle of pearly whites versus The Crushing, Pulsating Drill of Death 2000 that I’m not just going to lay here gripped with fear in sin. No. I will not just lay here gripped with fear while some dude in a white lab jacket with credentials I probably can’t spell, let alone pronounce, is sending tiny shards of my pearly whites flying sky high from here to kingdom come, even though this procedure is exciting almost every fear I have. I will not worry about all the fear and I know that taking a deep breath and just ressssssssting is so very hard, but…

…to enjoy Him we have to relax and just let Him take care of it.

My pearly white is much better now. As the wonderful numbing sensation began to wear off, I sensed yet another spiritual parallel bubbling up to the surface – but that’s another tale for another day.

Control

I was at the dentist today. I had chipped a tooth and needed it fixed so there I was. You know the deal: he did the novacaine, put those big metal clamps on my teeth, and induced an axiety attack with the high frequencies of his drill. After he was done, he had to check my bite to make sure everything was ok. He grabbed my jaw and tried to move it. "Now just relax", he said. You know, you figure it would be easy to just let go and relax. Right when I would relax, he would begin to move my jaw and there I went again tightening it. Lucky for me, he was a patient dentist. He was able to check his work and it was superb.

I say all this because I saw the parallel immediately. We feel a lot of times as if God is trying to fix us more than He wants to enjoy us (and us to enjoy Him). We read the Scriptures and see all these ways we need to improve and then look for ways to do it. I really feel like this is tightening the jaw. (God fixes us as we enjoy Him) God is moving here, God is making the circumstances, God is checking His work. To tell the truth, the work is already done. God has already fixed us through Christ. His check is simply "do we believe it". Do we believe we are fixed? When we believe it and stop trying to prove it, it is amazing how quick our behavior falls in line. When we try to act right, improve this, do the "Christian thing", we lose sight of who we are. The work is already done. We are children of God. As long as our walk with God is boils down to being "sanctified", we will never know the glory of being His child. His love through the cross let's us relax and enjoy Him. Everything flows out of that. My tooth is fine now and it is glorious.