My JAW Hurts

My Facebook friends may know that I went to the dentist a couple weeks ago to get some teeth filled. While I was there, one of the cavities he filled was really deep and the dentist was concerned that I might need to get a root canal. He said to come back and see him if started to bother me. Well, at first it was fine and then a week or so after the filling the pain was becoming a distraction. It wasn't a "I'm going to die" kind of pain, just the annoying kind. So I went back to the dentist who sent me to the root canal specialist. The root canal guy looked at it and said that there was no immediate need to deal with it and whether or not I got a root canal really was dictated by how bad the pain was for me. Well, since it wasn't killing me, I decided against the procedure right then. Since then, the pain comes and goes. Sometimes it's fine, other times it's annoying, and still others I reach for the Advil to deal with it.

Why do I tell you about my dental trials and tribulations? Well I went to the Beth Moore simulcast a couple weekends ago at a local church. She taught on Psalm 37, concentrating on Psalm 37: 4 "Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart." She said lots of things that were encouraging and challenging, real words from the Lord. But none were as relevant to my heart right now as what she said about the things that steal our delight. She used the acronym JAW (now you understand my rambling earlier) to point us to the things that can stand in the way of delighting in the Lord. The "J" stands for jealousy. You know, that green-eyed monster. Comparing, bemoaning why they succeed and I don't, begruding people what they have...ow...I've done them all. The "A" is for anger. I don't think I'm angry person, but I'm certainly not immune from that emotion. I've had my share of temper tantrums at others and at God. The "W" is worry. I think we all have those things we worry about: money, children, aging, the state of the world. I can be a worrier for certain: finances, insurances, what I'm going to be when I grow up, will I ever meet Mr. Right....the list goes on and and. When she got done, boy did my JAW hurt.

So as I continued to mull this over in my brain over the past week or so, I've been trying to do my own type of root canal, looking for the roots of those things that made my JAW hurt. Honestly, like a regular root canal, it's taking a lot of time and some pain for me to dig those things out. With a real root canal, it fixes the problem and the pain should not recur. I wish it was like that with my spiritual one, but I know because of my sin nature, jealous, anger and worry will come back. But what I need to do is get to them before they become an all consuming pain that takes away my focus. Whenever my JAW hurts even a little bit, I need to remember to take it to the Lord and let Him deal with my heart and the issue.