Hope is Like a Dentist's Office

I was sitting in my dentist's waiting room this afternoon, trying to look cool. Not trying to look too nervous before my name was called. And all of a sudden, this completely wild and crazy idea popped into my head. It was strange, even for me. And that's saying something.

No one, and I mean no one is going to agree with me. I know that I'll be on one side of the room while the entire population of planet Earth is on the other. Everyone will be booing at me. Some might even throw eggs or rotten tomatoes. Others will disown me, deleting me from their email and social media platforms. They won't think twice about denying that they even know me.

The thought that raced into my mind is the title above - Hope is Like a Dentist's Office. There, I said it. You read it and still can't believe that anyone would be so stupid to think something like this. And be even a bigger fool by writing it for all the world to see.

All that may be true. I might be more than a little bit off. I might be all alone. And that's OK. But that doesn't change the fact that hope is really like a dentist's office.

Whether or not we want to admit it, we all need to visit the dentist now and then. Something happens. Something's wrong. No matter how much we try to ignore it or fix it ourselves, we all come to the painful conclusion that we need help.

Help from someone else. Someone who's got a lot more experience with our problems. Someone who's probably seen it all. Heard it all. Someone with the loving and compassionate skill and patience to;

• Reach out to us.

• Sit with us.

• Help us.

• Reduce the pain.

• Fix the problem.

• Get us back into life.

• Be only a call away.

We may not want to admit it, but we really do need a dentist. Someone we can call when we're in pain. Talk to someone when we're all out of answers. Someone we can visit when life's out of control.

Please stop just for a moment and be open to the possability that God's the solution to our problems. To our pain. To our loneliness. To our outrage. To our lostness.

You probably never thought of God like this before. You might of thought that he's the cause of our pain. Was the source of our problems. Not the solution. Not our healing. Not our savior.

After all, he claims to be our creator and sustainer. He says he loves us so much that he personally took action to solve our biggest problem. Since we couldn't fix ourselves and the resulting separation from him, he did the outrageously loving thing by dying for you and me.

Does that sound like something you want? Someone you want? Someone you need?