Soul Kitchen

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5&6

I was raised on this verse. It was my Dad's life verse. Above the family room fireplace, the wood mantle piece was boldly engraved with the words Trust in the Lord. As I look at these four words, I can't think of a better, wiser way to live life.

A couple of lines from an old hymn are in my mind as I meditate on Proverbs 3:5&6.

Oh what peace we often forfeit,
Oh what needless pain we bear,
all because we do not carry
everything to God in prayer.

I have a story from my week that I think applies.
I have been struggling with a lot of pain in my teeth for the last couple of weeks. Well, it's actually been longer than that. At first I thought it was just gum sensitivity to hot and cold but by this week it was at the most random times when I wasn't eating or drinking anything.

For about the last week I had pain radiating along my jaw, and extending from my ear down my neck. I couldn't really isolate from where the pain was originating until Tuesday. I knew then... and just felt like ripping out that tooth - bottom right, 2nd from the back. I couldn't stand it anymore. I called the dentist that day, and since I got an appointment for the next day and had pain killers, I thought I'd try him first.

The next day at the dentist, after x-rays and his tapping on my teeth to find which one hurt - uh...every one of them! - he determined that it was the upper right, 4th one. An hour later, I left the dentist office with a lopsided frozen mouth and a root canal. More procedures to follow, but the pain was gone.

If I didn't have access to a dentist, didn't believe in dentists, or was too impatient to wait, my bottom right... 2nd from the back... tooth would be gone and I'd still have the same problem and pain. I'd actually have more of a problem.

In our country with our medical system, that wouldn't be as likely to happen as the generation of my parents when they lived in Russia, or those now living in third world countries. This unfortunately though, is exactly how we in our generation and culture deal with other suffering and pain we have. We figure it out on our own and deal with it on our own. Maybe it's because we don't really trust that God cares about how we feel. Sometimes it's that we don't want to do it His way because it will require something of us that we are unwilling to do.

May we see the futility of this way of thinking and acting, though, as ineffective as pulling out a wrong tooth. May God help us to trust Him. May we lean into Him instead of doing it our own way. God promises to be with us and to help us. He cares. He loves us.