Today I get to go to the dentist. It’s a great moment in my life that comes only so often and so the joyous expectation builds up in my soul until that moment that I sit down in the chair….
Actually, it’s nothing like that at all. I sort of dread getting in that chair. And I doubt that you really like going to the dentist either. Maybe it is because of childhood trauma, or you don’t like people putting their fingers in your mouth, or maybe you just have chronic tooth issues and so every trip means loss of money in exchange for pain. One of the parts of the dentist that I don’t care for is when they have their fingers in my mouth and they ask, “Have you been flossing?”
I don’t like it because for a long time my answer was “no,” and when it wasn’t “no,” it was some sort of lie. But today, I’m actually happy to say that I can go to the dentist and say, “why yes, my good woman, I have been flossing twice a day.” Small victories, but I have been. Go me.
I think there’s a danger in our Lutheran tribe of missing out of the simple joy of saying we’ve accomplished something. We get together every Sunday and we confess to God and to each other about how we’ve sinned – failure to floss being one of those sins perhaps. And in the grand scheme of things, failure to floss is a pretty minor thing, but it’s still a failure. Until it isn’t. Every now and again, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives and we do something uncommon – we actually succeed. We do a good work. We remember to pray before our meal in true thanksgiving, not just a rushed recitation. We read our Bible for several days in a row.
I think sometimes for our concern over needing our sins forgiven (a very real concern, mind you), we might forget to celebrate when we do the spiritual equivalent of flossing twice a day. Not a big thing. Certainly not going to save our eternal lives. We still need Jesus desperately. But every now and then, it’s good to celebrate that His work is working in our lives and being able to see that in our behavior.
So today, think of something that you might commit to. Your “spiritual flossing”. And then try and make it happen. Imagine the joy that you will have an the joy God will have when you’re able to say to that miniscule question, “why yes, I have been flossing….and I still desperately need Jesus to fix my sins.”