The Surgery

 Almost three weeks ago, I had to have a couple of teeth removed.  One had broken off at the gum line.  The other was cracked up inside the gum and was aching.  I decided to have both of them removed and have implants later on this year after everything has healed.  That process consists of having “posts” implanted sometime in April, waiting for that to heal, and having the final restoration done sometime in June.

I tell you this because I went into this pretty much dreading the after effects of the removal surgery.  The last time I had any teeth removed was when I had wisdom teeth extracted some 50 or more years ago.  At that time I had just local anesthesia, and the after-effects were less than pleasant for a couple of days.  I also had an extended time of having to eat soft food, and was single, so I was on my own.

This time, I asked to be put under general anesthesia…conscious sedation, I think they call it.  Yet I wasn’t at all looking forward to the days following the surgery, knowing there would essentially be a couple of holes in my gums that I would have to keep clean, and I would have to be careful what I ate and how I chewed my food.

The surgery went well.  I don’t remember anything.  The discomfort following the surgery was minimal.  I took only two or three of the pain pills I was given, and for the next two or three days just took over the counter medications.  I did have to watch what and how I ate, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be.  My mouth has now pretty much healed, and I can eat practically anything.

I tell you these things because there is a larger principle here.  So often when we see something ahead of us that is an unknown, we tend to think the worst.  We dwell on the negative aspects.  Our brains immediately think about all that can go wrong.  We get worked up because of all of the possible problems, issues, and yes, I’ll say it, CHANGES that we will need to make in our daily routines because of what we think may be coming our way.  We are, after all, creatures of habit, comfort, and sameness.

Sometimes we are correct in our notion that things can go badly.  Our lives are upended.  Things go drastically wrong.  Permanent changes take place in our lives and in the lives of those we know and love.  But often, we become agitated and upset about a future event only to experience very little disruption, very little change, very little that we previously were dreading.

Jesus said this about worry in his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel.

Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?   Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow.  They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.

 

Most of us tend to fret and worry entirely too much.  We worry about things over which we have little or no control.  I’ve spoken before about how some of us get all worked up about national and international politics; yet we have virtually no control over anything that happens in those venues.  Things such as who becomes elected as President.  The various wars and conflicts over the world.  What the Congress will or won’t do.  Floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters.  Who wins the Super Bowl.

These are things we can’t influence in any meaningful way.  Yes, we need to cast our votes.  Yes, we need to communicate as best we can with our elected representatives.  Yes, we need to be aware of what’s going on in the world.  But to worry, get upset, lose sleep, lose friends, and generally work oneself into a frenzy over these things is not only unproductive.  It is unhealthy.

So, like my interactions with the oral surgeon, and later on my regular dentist, it is not productive for me to worry.  It can even be unhealthy for me to get upset over something I need to do.

Life is much better when we take a moment to just breathe and relax.  Wind down and enjoy the time we have.  As was said in the old Alka Seltzer commercial, Try it.  You’ll like it.