Heart Novacaine

I'm thinking a lot about Novocaine today because I just recently got a root canal. This was my fourth root canal...I know stupid for a 24 year old. "It is what it is" a friend of mine is now known as quoting and that's what I have to say about my 4 root canals.

I know most of us know what Novocaine is and does, but just to refresh your memory, Novocaine is a a shot that is used to numb a specific spot within the mouth. The place where the dentist will do surgery is where he puts the Novocaine. Simple math. Let me say that I praise God for that little drug today because having someone drill into your teeth and pluck out a nerve without it would be completely unbearable!

Thinking about Novocaine, oddly enough has caused me to think of the deeper things in life. Mainly the things of the heart. Along this vain of thinking, I came to a very interesting question that I had to blog about. I asked myself this question: Do we sometimes use Novocaine by injecting it into our hearts to numb the pains of life?

Do we try to use things in life to numb spots of severe pain? I think we definitely do. Different folks use different types of Novocaine, but we all use it to numb our hearts from life.

Some people use drugs, some people use alcohol, others use their jobs, their relationships, books, TV or movies. We attempt to numb ourselves from the pains, hurts and aches of the heart by simply inoculating ourselves with Novocaine. We numb the spot of pain and move on.

The end result of only using Novocaine to numb the pain is a heart full of decay, that only gets worse. Just like as in a tooth, if you don't allow the Dentist to clear out the decay and give you a new tooth (or a crown), it will rot. So too your heart will rot if you don't allow the Great Physician to clear out the decay in it.


I will not downplay how much our hearts can hurt. For in life, our hearts will take tons of abuse, see tons of horrific things and be wounded over and over again. The problem is, if we continue to simply numb out hearts, those pains will end up effecting the rest of the body, life and future.

Sadly, this rotting idea came at a BIG price for me. I ignored my tooth for a long time, numbing the pain with Ibuprofen for so long that it became infected. It was so infected my dentist said that before he can put a crown on, I needed to take 2,000 mg a of anti-biotics a DAY for a whole week!

I allowed my pain to be covered over and over again that it caused a HUGE infection. Also, funny as it may be, I had a fever of 101.2 because of the infection in my tooth! It effected my entire body, caused me to feel sicker than I could remember feeling in a long time. I was so sick, in interfered with my job. I couldn't teach Sunday School, I couldn't go to church because of a what started out as a simple tooth ache.

This same thing happens when we use Novocaine to simply cover the pain in our hearts.

This tooth problem I got myself into has given me tons to think about, tons to put into perspective and a lot to change. I don't want to simply cover up my aches and pains with inoculation after inoculation of Novocaine...I want to allow God to eliminate the pain. Heal the heart, remove the decay in my heart, clean my heart and make it new and whole.

It's funny how deep thoughts can come through dentist visits. Take a moment and inspect your own heart...have you been using Novocaine?