Today started out as any other day, I went to work for the morning, then came home at noon, made myself a sandwich, and then in the midst of enjoying it, I heard a cracking sound.
The sound was awful and the feeling after it was worse. I have dentures, and sure enough the top right side begin to droop, which meant only one thing, my dentures had broke in half.
I removed them and there they lay in my hand two separate pieces of my smile. Broken in two by a pickle.Now with my lips sucked back in to the lack of teeth support, the pickle truly made an expression sour!
Well, I go back to work in the evening, doing door to door canvassing for appointments, and my work entails meeting the public, so I was in an emergency.
I had paid over $2,000 back in 2002 to have my poor few rotten teeth that werre left pulled and dentures made so I could smile at others for once without embarrassment. My tooth loss was genetic over many years..
Now I looked at the pieces, thinking, $1,000 plus $1,000 equals $2,000. I had purchased dentures through some of the money my first wife left in life insurance when she passed away.
My predicament was magnified, from being told that it could cost me as much as $250.00 for a repair. I had no choice, I needed a repair, but what was I too do, I had less than $70.00 in my wallet.
I was talking to a friend of mine at the time who knew the girl that does the denture work for my dentist. He immediately called her to see if she could help me out, but she couldnt because of her moral obligation to her employer, she couldnt fix them, as she would have to use his lab anyway.
Well, that made common sense to me when he called me back and explained. I didnt know the situation.
So, I went to the Dentist, as he was someone I knew fairly well, as he was a member of the First "Big Temple" Church in Athens, - and I think he serves on the Deacon staff as well. We have met various places in town, stood by one another in line to see the movie "The Passion", and he knows my new wife and children very well, as knowing me personally as a Christian brother. My friend that I was talking to on the phone suggested that perhaps he would work out things with me for payment and to just ask him. I really had no other choice at the time but to think of asking him for his help. So, I went directly to his office and he was just opening up, from lunch time. I met him at the door. So, in the predicament, I was in, I told him my problem and I asked how much it was going to cost for the repair, he looked it up in his handy dandy computer and told me, $132.00.
Now, here I am with two broken pieces of dentures that I paid cash for initially and it was he who had received the cash, and so I asked, "can I pay you half now, and the other half on Friday"?.
Well he dodged the question, "with do you have insurance"?, To which my answer was "no", "this is why I am asking if I can't pay you half now, and the other half this Friday"?
He dodged it, saying well we don't make any arrangements for paying and then referred me to his receptionist and he darted off for the back of his office. Well of course, she is trained to tell me the same thing, and instead offers me a form to fill out for a credit card. To which I tell her, I don't deal with credit cards, I own none personally and don't want any. I am a man of my word, when circumstances allow me to be. To me the idea overall filling out a credit card application is just removing the debt that I would have owed him - Christian brother to Christian brother, to someone else other than myself to him, with a penalty attached called interest.
You must realize this is a second marriage and we have from the beginning because of our differences in view of finances, and money, and previous individuals debts kept our incomes, our living expenses, all separate.
This is decision we made for good reasons of our own.
We had separate lives before we came together financially so why not keep it that way, at least until each one of us had our debts before marriage paid off.
Well, there was no solution, I wasn't going to get my dentures fixed unless I found all the cash for immediate payment, then and there. I needed my teeth by tommorrow, so I called my wife, and said, I need your help.
Now she owns and uses credit cards, I would rather not. I hate them and the whole system involved with them.
I hated every moment of it, here I was in desperate need, trying to avoid credit cards, borrowing, to simply get this man I have known for 5 years to accept the word of one Christian man to another Christian man, for payment.
Half now and the other in 3 days.
Now, here is my statement, if Christianity is mere membership on a roll, mere reflection of going to the Temple, mere importance in the Temple, then what we have is pure Phariseeism! Undoubtedly so!
Let me remind all my dear brothers of something that God has done in my life, he made it real, whereever and whenever I have or have had to give, whether it be time, or money, or something else that I may have, when I see a need I can meet, I'm going to meet it. Most often it cost me something, time I could use elsewhere for profit, money I could use elsewhere for myself, skills I could earn money at. This is what God has taught me giving is all about.
Besides what 10% to a rich man is- nothing, is usually bread and water for the poor man. Thus the lesson Jesus was teaching about true giving in the pointing out the widows mite.
I am not boasting as to get credit for good works, or to say look at me Lord, this ability to be unselfish is not within my flesh, it is something that God provides through His indwelling Spirit, if we are his.
I want to remind all those in an occupation or trade, that here is where the rubber meets the road, because we have something often times others are in need of that we can provide. It goes so much further than a 10% tithe that you think you are giving to God each Sunday when you drop it in a plate, knowing the church has a non-profit tax declaration and it is returnable in part on your tax form as a tax deduction, it is so much more, than getting recognition for your "godly efforts" to support the church building fund and the church salaries and very little if any going to the poor, the widow or the orphan. The book of James states if you want to be religious, this is true religion.
It is the first creed of the early church - remember the poor. Somewhere in all this Western ideal of Christianity and materialism, the love of others has been lost to works righteousness that only goes to the building and the organization and recognizable pat on the back for your philanthropy.
I am not writing this because I want anything from the dentist, I have already paid him for it.
What I pray to do here, is to reprove and correct all of us, when we forget to "remember the poor" and there is a lot more to it, then just some tithe in a plate or church bucket, or once in awhile project where everyone will see you and your good works and think highly of you, as you blow your trumpet in the marketplace.
It is in times just like this scenario " The Case of the Broken Dentures" when the love of God can be brought forth to our brethern and it becomes real because it may cost us something.
So, I pray for the Dentist, but I also reprove him for a reason. He needs to reevaluate what a relationship in Christ, really means. It is much more than what you can get ,and much more about what you can give.
I remind all those who say they know Christ-
I John 3:10 - 4:1
In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
For this is the message which ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another: not as Cain was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his works were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, brethren, if the world hateth you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him?
My Little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue; but in deed and truth. Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our heart before him: because if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God; and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he gave us. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
I remind myself and others this:
Remember, when you come into the Kingdom, Jesus just might say, "where were you when I asked for help with my dentures". What will you answer? When did I see you Lord, needing Denture repairs? Car repairs, computer help, a ride to the grocery store, a little help repairing a neighbors home, or giving the food and water so desperately needed. What will our answer be?
Dr. J
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I can't wait, I love Oatmeal, it slides through the mouth real well. I also discovered if you are out of Fixodent, it works well to keep your dentures in, really sticky!
ReplyDeleteDr. J.