Freeing Truths: Dental Anguish

Monday, June 30, 2008

Dental Anguish

When I ask people to pray for healing of my painful teeth, they say, “Oh but you should go to the dentist. God uses doctors and dentists to heal.” Jesus said that he came to preach good news to the poor. “Healing” which costs thousands of dollars after insurance (if you can afford insurance in the first place) is not good news for the poor or anyone else for that matter. Would people be so quick to insist on doctors and dentists if they had no insurance? What about the many who are unemployed or the “working poor”? Yes, the worker is worthy of his/her hire but Jesus never charged for his healing. That’s the kind I want, the kind with no side effects. Besides, he’s healed me of some pretty serious things so teeth are easy.

Then there’s the fact that even dentists, when they see my x-rays say, “Wow, you’ve really spent a lot of time in the dentist’s chair.” Right, I’ve been there, done that and suffered quite enough thank you. After spending thousands on root canals and crowns, the crowns fall off and oops! if I don’t get back in immediately with the errant crown, it won’t fit anymore (even a week) and oh well, we have to start over. That will be $800 plus, please. Then there was the one who hit a nerve with the needle and skewed my vision for a time! It simply has not worked for me and the downward spiral has to stop. My teeth must get well! (This doesn’t even count the many doctors my husband and I have encountered in the last few years who say, “I have no idea what causes that or what to do about it.”)

MT 8:16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

"He took up our infirmities
and carried our diseases."

Healing is a part of the atonement and I don’t want to waste one bit of his suffering for us. Jesus healed every person who came asked him and some who didn’t even ask. I may still have to endure the agony and high price of the dental chair as my faith grows but at least I know how it’s supposed to be. What if we really believed God’s word? What might be accomplished?

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About Me

I’m Joan C. Thomson, a writer, artist, and speaker but most of all, I’m a follower of Jesus and all that I am flows from there. I used to parrot what I heard in church and the American culture but the more I read the Bible, the more questions I had. I saw that a lot of what I heard didn’t add up with what I read (though some did). Somewhere along the way, God gave me the gift of knowing when something doesn’t add up—or when it does, along with a drive to find out what the Truth is. I’ve been studying the Bible personally and in many classes for over forty years but my understanding jumped into a higher gear when I took a Bible institute introductory Hebrew and Greek class. There I learned to use Biblical reference books to see what the Bible truly says.

I invest a lot of time and Biblical research into everything I believe, write—even in many of my art pieces. I put everything that comes my way through the filter of Jesus’ teachings (the New Testament of the Bible). Like an archaeologist, I dig into the Word and report what‘s there and sooner or later, I’ll probably step on everyone’s pet teaching. Why go to all that trouble? First, it’s what I do, it’s who I am as a follower of Jesus and I am utterly convinced that it’s crucial to believe the right thing (Biblically) and then live it. It can be a matter of life and death—spiritual or physical. And freedom from the unnecessary heavy weight of false teachings—well-meaning though they may be, gives freedom to take up Jesus’ teachings.

Though I’ve participated in quite a few denominations over the years I don’t identify with any denomination, nor with “conservatives” or “liberals”—I’m simply a follower of Jesus.

My hope for this blog is that you too, will want to know what the Bible truly says on a given subject and that you will read what I have written as a prompt to dig more deeply yourself, as a signpost of where to look. I encourage you to be like the Bereans, who “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” (Acts 17:11) Don’t take my word for it, look it up! Paul wasn’t threatened, nor am I—preachers shouldn’t be either. And talk to me about it if you still can’t agree—don’t just get mad and/or write me off. Come join me in the quest to follow Jesus more closely.