It was excruciating…at least by my low pain threshold standard of excruciating. One Sunday night about a month ago, the area around my lower right wisdom tooth just began to throb. (At nearly 35 years old, I still have all my wisdom teeth. I don’t know if that’s common or not. I feel like it isn’t but I really have no idea.) I could hardly sleep at night, took more Tylenol than I had in years, couldn’t chew on that side of my mouth, and after 3 days of no relief was about to schedule a dental visit. Suddenly, on the following Wednesday morning, a popcorn kernel shaving popped out of the gum area near that tooth. I hadn’t been able to feel it in there – it was absolutely buried, and had finally worked its way free. Almost right away it felt a little bit better, but it was still pretty raw and uncomfortable. Very slowly, over a period of weeks, my mouth began to feel more and more normal. A month later, I can finally say that all traces of discomfort and pain have been eliminated.

As I have the habit of doing, I’ve tried to make a spiritual analogy out of this very routine, everyday, unspiritual problem of mine. (I’ve even gotten a little bit of amusement out of the fact that I’ve tried to gain wisdom from this episode with my wisdom tooth. Maybe they’re good for something after all.) So here’s what I’ve come up with:

1. Isn’t it crazy how one tiny little piece of popcorn can cause such a painful problem? Like that one small flaw in technique your athletes have that puts them at a higher risk for injury or poor performance. Or maybe that one little sinful habit we can’t seem to shake.

2. Isn’t it interesting that even though the foreign object was removed after a few days, the pain lingered for a few more weeks? Like the ongoing, transformational process of an athlete who works to correct that mechanical flaw until finally getting it right for good. Or the sinner who is forgiven and saved all at once by an infinitely merciful God, and yet spends the rest of his/her life learning to live out the reality that “the old has gone, the new has come!”

3. Isn’t it funny how unaware I was of the real source of the pain I was feeling? Like the Coach who doesn’t realize how the baggage he carries from past hurtful experiences negatively affects how he deals with people in the present.

4. Isn’t it wild how little control I had over all this? I couldn’t feel the source of my pain. Therefore, I couldn’t bring it into the light on my own – it just happened. And I wasn’t the one who could make it heal once the problem was solved. Thankfully, God is good and I’m being sure to stay away from popcorn.