Novocaine

This past Friday I had to go to the dentist. At 25 I had my first cavity that needed to be filled. I, like most Americans, hate going to the dentist. I hate the sound and feel of their instruments cleaning my teeth. During high school I had my two front teeth broken in a wrestling accident, I spent two hours in a dentist chair and received seven shots of Novocaine. I'm familiar with the dentist, but not with getting cavities filled.

As I sat in the chair the dentist prepared to give me the Novocaine shot. At first I felt the pinch in my gum, but then as the pain killer began to kick in that faded. I didn't even feel the second shot he gave me. Within a few minutes my tongue started to tingle, and soon the right side of my jaw was numb. At that point he began to work.
He drilled out the cavity to get a clean, smooth surface to apply the filling, and due to the Novocaine, I couldn't feel a thing.

Sin works that way. At first we feel it, the guilt the shame, we're sensitive to it. But over time we become numb. We build up a tolerance, an indifference to it. We no longer feel guilt. There is no longer shame we feel. Sin is just something we do, something we've grown accustomed to. It becomes a way of life.

The drill would have hurt without the Novocaine. I can't imagine getting dental work like that done with out it. That drill was doing real damage to my tooth (I know the point was to make it better, but go with me on this). Due to the Novocaine I couldn't even feel the real damage being done. Sin works like that. We become so numb to sin that we can't even feel it destroying our lives.

1 Thessalonians 5.21-22 says, "But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil." We are instructed to abstain from every form of evil, even the little things that don't seem that bad. We ate to examine everything carefully, not just take a surface glance and move on, but to examine things. We need to weigh things against what the Bible says, against who we know God to be, and against how Jesus would have us live. The things that match up with Christlikeness are the things we are to follow, and the things that don't we need to leave alone.

If we allow even a single sin in our lives we can begin to grow numb to it. Don't let that happen.

Peace be with you