Solid Food?

Today I had my wisdom teeth taken out.

My lips, tongue, gums, and even teeth were some version of numb for hours. Like 12 hours. Actually they are still sort of tingling. And, despite a relatively smooth extraction and some good pain killers, my now gaping holes are sore.

My resulting mandated “soft food” restriction? Not a problem. There was no way I was even going to try. I don’t eat dairy so 75% of the oral surgeon’s suggestions were out of the question but I did make some sugar-free jello and stocked up on Bolthouse Smoothies. I was actually pretty excited about my simple diet. I did a week on a fluid diet this summer and my finicky digestive system loved me! This was going to be great.

My queasy tummy and chipmunk cheeks sipped on Ginger Ale for most of the afternoon...which dribbled out my fat lip and down my numb chin. By dinner time I was venturing towards some smoothie – which I could just about taste past my tingling tongue. I wasn’t hungry but as mom’s rolls came out of the oven, I was craving real food. I didn’t want to eat. I just wanted to chew. Despite my excitement for the break on my picky stomach, I attempted towards the roll.

I chewed with my four front teeth, smashed it against the roof of my mouth with my tongue, and spent some great effort getting my mush down my throat. It was delicious. The process, however, was not satisfying. I couldn’t do it. I wanted to move the bread towards my molars and couldn’t. My jaw hurt. My teeth holes hurt. And my unhappy Vicadin-lined tummy soon hurt too. I wasn’t ready.

My wandering mind? Even on prescription pain-killers, it went to a theology bent. Paul chastising the church in Corinth: “I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.” (1 Corinthians 3:2) Paul wanted them to live real, genuine and intense lives rooted in hearty spiritual matters and instead they were still so connected to the world, it was like they were nursing on milk...something easy to swallow, easy to digest. I wondered if it was just my lacking wisdom teeth that couldn’t handle solid food...

I want to be nose deep in the Spirit, feasting on the solid food found as a result of living in the righteousness of God and instead find myself, far too often, suckling on some weak milk. Worldly matters loosely dipped in spiritual matters. After all, it is easy to digest, I don’t have to “chew” on it very long, and it doesn’t hurt too badly when it is going down. I’m “merely human” (1 Cor 3:3), regardless of the fact that I have been given the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2). I’ve been called to something more...but do I endeavor towards it?

In the same way I crave rolls and the promise of real food, I crave something more than this milk dipped spirituality. Happy digestive system or not, it’s hard to live a life on fluids when you know something better, something more. Something substantial. Something that draws me out of the life I am living and inside of life I am called to. Still, for as long as I’m gumming my way along, as long as I’m content to drink my Ginger Ale out of my dripping lip and avoid the fullness of the measure of God (Ephesians 3:19), I’ll never move on to solid foods. I want the solid food God is offering. Father, I want to be ready for this. Make me ready.