Being Re-Tired and Root Canals

I have finally arrived home after what seems to be a day of comedy of errors and pain.

I had an early appointment to get my snow tires put on my car for the pending season of snow, ice, slush and freezing rain. I have spent the last 16 of 17 winters in Manitoba and never had snow tires – I just used the all-season radials that came with the car. I moved to Ottawa last July and now I have this sudden urge to get snow tires on my car. For the time being, I will call that urge providential. I took some light reading with me as I waited in the dealership cafeteria (yes, dealers sometimes have the best buys on snow tires!). I thought the wait would be a maximum of one hour. Two hours went by and I was called to pay the bill – which I did. I walked to my car and sure enough the remote opened the locks – to another car that looked just like mine. After the initial confusion – both mine and the service advisor – we came to realize that another customer with an identical car (even the same colour) had come into the dealership at the same time as me with an electrical problem. The dealership had put my tires on the wrong car. They assured me that they would fix this immediately. I went back to the cafeteria and sought out the other customer and explained the situation to her (a retired elementary school teacher). She looked relieved – the mechanics had told her that there was no electrical problem with her car – that’s because they were looking at my car. Another two hours passed and I was able to drive away – a happy customer. Really, I was happy. Although there was some frustration with the mix-up, I was able to get more reading done that I thought I would, and the car drove very well with the new tires. I was officially re-tired.

I was also very happy because I could get home and get some pain killers in me. You see, I had been to the dentist the day before with a severe toothache that had started some two to three weeks ago. A root canal was in order and I was scheduled with a local endodontist for December 3. Later that day I called back saying that I would not last until then and so the root canal was scheduled for today at 4:30 pm. I had never had a root canal before – and I have heard horror stories from family and friends.

I got home, took some pain killers, and went off to the Sheptytsky Institute at Saint Paul University for the weekly Wednesday noon Divine Liturgy. On the way, the dealership called – they had put the wrong tires on my car. More frustration! After the Liturgy, I returned to the dealership and had the correct tires put on – and with the pain killers really not being effective, and the pending unknown horror of a root canal, I began to wonder if the service advisor just had had a bad day or was he in the wrong profession. However, I must exonerate him here – he was fully and utterly apologetic over it all.

When I got to the dentist’s office and she asked how my day went, I asked for the freezing first, and THEN told her and her assistant what had transpired. They were amazed at the story, shaking their heads every so often. Once the freezing had taken, the drilling began. All went well until she hit a nerve that did not get frozen. I jumped in the chair, which caused the dentist to jump up out of her seat, and drop the drill in my mouth. Thankfully, the rubber tooth dam that had installed prevented any cutting of skin, etc. As a result of touching my nerve, my whole body was shaking for about three minutes. My dentist was extremely apologetic for what she considered, I guess, to be unprofessional behaviour. I told her that if someone my size jumped in a dental chair as I had done, I too would have reacted as she had reacted. With deep breaths I settled in for a procedure that now had to be completed. More freezing and more hit nerves, my body was sweating and my mind was racing. Due to (yet another) genetic inheritance (with which I often tease my father), this particular molar had five rather than the usual four canals. More freezing and more hit nerves…

It was in the midst of all this that I finally turned to the Lord – I asked, “Are you there?” and immediately I recalled some words of Holy Scripture:

Seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul (Dt. 4:29 NKJV).

Indeed, in the midst of all this, there He was. And a peace poured over my heart that melted the frustration, the fear, the anxiety. I still shuddered when a nerve was hit, but I shuddered with peace. There on the dental chair I recalled our Lord’s suffering I the garden and on the Cross. I saw mine in the light of His. I recalled the suffering of heart of some of those parishioners whom I have served over the years. I saw my suffering in the light of theirs in the light of His. And I rejoiced for this sight. I rejoiced because I saw how He has joined us to Him in His suffering, and in His Life. I began to weep (a little) for joy. I am sure that the dentist thought the tears were from the pain she was inflicting – quite the contrary. I will tell her so when I return for a follow up visit next week.

Finding the Lord in everyday experiences. It is something that we ought all to try. In the Acts of the Apostles, we are exhorted to:

seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:27 NKJV).

My friends, let us seek the Lord, our God, and we will find Him if we seek Him with all our heart and with all our soul, and if I may add, with all our nerve.