Who Would Have Thought!

The proverbial comparison for anything that is impending which you dread seems to be the root canal. Once again, the poor dentist is the brunt of every ones least desired anticipation in life. You've heard it said, and have perhaps uttered it yourself: "I could do such and such, or I could have a root canal!" which is nothing more than saying "This is the LAST thing I want to go through."

Well, the ultimate in contrasts and comparisons came flooding into my life on Tuesday. A little history first.

I don't hate dentists. I don't fear dentists. I dislike pain. Unfortunately, my history has been that pain and dentists, while not synonymous, are at least distant cousins. So, as I was munching away on a small Halloween sized Hershey bar on Friday and felt something chunky (which was odd since it was not a Hersey with almonds bar!) my immediate thought was one of doom. I will need to go to the dentist. I felt a cavernous hole in one tooth on my right side. I knew what was to come.

And so an appointment was made for 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Oddly enough, this was also the day our elders were meeting, at 6:30 p.m. to have the final vote on the church's 2011 budget. It appeared the perfect storm was aligning itself: a dentist appointment at 4 and a budget meeting at 6:30! The storm only intensified when in the dentist's chair I was told that I would need not only a crown for this broken bicuspid but also a root canal. My dentist (an amazing gentleman, by the way) assured me that I could have it all! I could receive at least a temporary crown, if not the real deal, a root canal, and still make the budget meeting at 6:30! He was right. By 6:15 I was driving back to church, a bit numb, but the recipient of a diadem on a tooth, a root canal, and was headed for the budget show down!

Fast forwarding to the conclusion, I am happy to relate that if given the choice; a budget meeting or a root canal, I'd still take them both on the same night! Why could I say that? Well partially due to the gift of Novocaine, but also because of prayer.

I spent time earlier in the afternoon walking through the room where the budget meeting was to be held. Being a pastor for some 27 years I am somewhat aware of what budget meetings have the potential of becoming; all out war over line items. But I also knew that it didn't have to become that! I knew, and found myself prompted to act on the knowledge, that God is so much bigger than that. So my prayer, in the room that afternoon, was "Lord, let us abandon our agendas in favor of yours. Let us glorify you even in how we discuss these sensitive things. May we bring glory to you in this whole process."

I'm glad to say now with the gift of retro-vision, that the meeting went fine and a budget was passed and we exited the room unified (and relatively early!) and ready to meet the challenges of a new year. Even in the midst of a slightly tingling face as the Novocaine wore off, I could smile at how God's Spirit works, even when we think it can't get any worse!