I'll Never Darken the Door of a Dentist Again!

"I'll Never Darken the Door of a Dentist Again!" It sounds a bit extreme, doesn't it? But you just don't know all the misery my family has experienced at the hands of dentists. There's the time my dentist mixed my chart records with someone else's. Later, when we moved to another town, suddenly we all had cavities that needed filling. After another move, no one in the family had cavities for years. In yet another city, I developed a need for an extreme deep cleaning. My husband swallowed his so-called permanent crown, but the dentist would take no action without the missing crown. My husband was disinclined to reuse it once it was recycled. He finally went to another dentist who declared the previous dentist did inferior work. The saga continues, but I won't bore you with the details. And I really didn't stop visiting dentists. No, I realize I can't make it on my own. I need help from someone with higher dental wisdom than I. How foolish it would be for me to stop seeing a dentist. Even though there are plenty of fools in white jackets, I just kept looking until I found someone who did quality work. But this tale does remind me of bitter words I've heard from too many people: "I'll never darken the door of a church again." They go on to tell how someone hurt their feelings or acted in a hypocritical way or failed them somehow. Their stories are indeed sad. Someone truly did them wrong. But why do they stop looking for a real place of worship and fellowship? Can't they see how self-destructive that is? To starve yourself of spiritual food is far worse than missing a few teeth. I know the sting that lingers after a slap from a so-called Christian brother. I've seen my husband used and abused by more than one "church." If he added up all the money he should have been paid from churches X, Y, and Z, then he would have a lovely nest egg. But all the insults, slights, disrespects, and cheatings from those who call themselves Christians will never be enough to make me walk away from Christ. No matter how others may treat me, my life has no quality without His influence. I could live without dentists if I must, but I can't make it without fellowship with true believers. None of us who call ourselves Christian is perfect, but we need each other.

Sweet Fellowship

I really enjoy fellowship with other Christian churches. I find it thrilling to sing God's praises with brothers and sisters from different denominations, ethnic groups, nationalities, and socio-economic levels. The varieties of music, preaching, and worship styles remind me of a garden filled with hundreds of kinds of flowers. Look around at this beautiful Earth and you can tell God loves variety in colors, textures, fragrances, tastes, and sounds. And yet we insist that others must be cookie-cutter Christians made just like us. How boring! Let's not shun other believers in Christ just because they are different. Let's embrace our family members, expecting that the only similarity between us is the love of Christ. Several years ago, I had the privilege of singing with a community choir at a Billy Graham Crusade in the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. When I heard the voices of 20,000 people singing together, I was overcome with emotion. This is just a small taste of what it will be like in Heaven, I thought. What a blessing! Let's practice here for the great choir concert in Heaven. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing."--Revelation 5:12