Dental Health, Planet Health, Sexual Health

Last week I had my fifth and final endodontic appointment to repair two root canals which had gone bad. It is merely the most recent step in a long process of dental care which all stems from one very foolish year of my life. When I was about twelve, I spent an entire year eating chewy candy every day and never ever brushing my teeth. At my next dentist appointment, my x-rays revealed nine cavities, and many more which had started but were too small to fill. At that point I became almost fanatical about dental hygiene, but it was too late. The next year, seven more cavities were ready to fill, and the following year five. And ever since, I’ve spent a lot of time with my dentists and endodontists.

It’s not that I didn’t have good teeth to begin with. I was the only one in my family who didn’t require braces; I had plenty of room for all four wisdom teeth; and until my fateful experiment, I had a perfect no-cavity record. That one irresponsible year did me in.

In my opinion, our planet is suffering today from the same exploitative spirit which ruined my teeth. We were given a great treasure, but instead of taking care of it, we indulged ourselves without limit, with little regard to the consequences. But neither our teeth nor our planet can be enjoyed long-term with complete freedom. It may be that for a long time the consequences are not obvious, but eventually our exploitation comes back to haunt us. As the Bible says, “You reap what you sow” (Galatians 6:7). It’s easy to blame it on prior generations, but this is a human problem, a characteristic of us all.

I think we’re doing the same thing when it comes to sex, when as a society we demand complete freedom to do whatever is in our hearts to do. Like our planet, sex is a precious treasure we’ve been given by God. But we’ve got to enjoy this great gift within the limits of its design. It is not designed to be exploited without restraint. And when we insist on sexual freedom, not only will we destroy sex, but we will destroy ourselves in the process. There are so many ways this exploitation and insistence on complete freedom has already begun to wreak havoc upon us. And yet, there are many deniers of this who, similar to their environment-exploiting counterparts, seem to prefer riding the bandwagon of sexual freedom to the disintegration of the family, the disintegration of society, the disintegration of the future, and the disintegration of their own souls rather than yield to the limitations lovingly imposed upon us by our all-wise and all-good Creator.

Ultimately, of course, my hope is not in mankind, or else all of this would be very discouraging. The great thing is that God’s grace is greater than human corruption! And His power to heal is greater than our power to destroy! Not only this, but in Christ He has provided a way that people like you and me can be forgiven for all our misdeeds: dental, environmental, sexual and otherwise.