I need to have two teeth extracted. Two back molars, to be more precise. It’s a new chapter in an old story. I had root canals on those teeth in college after years of an eating disorder and an addiction to sugary candy.
The thing is, the teeth aren’t really bothering me. They hurt a lot a while back, before the x-ray showed any damage. Now, I suppose my body has adjusted to the brokenness. I don’t feel any pain. But I went to the oral surgeon today, and he used a 3D x-ray machine to show me the black pockets of infection surrounding the roots of both teeth. They are literally teeming with infection. And if I don’t get these teeth extracted, the infection will only spread, slowly.
It’s like a piece of fruit with a bruise on it. If you don’t cut out the bruise, it will spread throughout that piece of fruit and even rot the fruit next to it. Disease begets disease. Even when you can’t feel the pain of it anymore.
Where else have I adjusted to brokenness in my own life? Where else have I tolerated disease in our world?
Disease begets disease. But if we pay attention, if we face it with honesty, with humility, with hope, we can begin to heal. And there’s the beauty of it. Disease begets disease. But healing also begets healing.
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