My sister has a really great smile. Hers isn’t just warm and friendly, she also has really great teeth. They’re bright and as straight as can be. Yet, she wasn’t born that way. Instead, she had a problem with crowding. It was like a Super Bowl party in an elevator—everyone was jammed together. It bothered her enough that she decided to do something about it. So, as an adult, she got braces.
Not having had braces myself (I have what I refer to as a Madonna gap, where my top front teeth don’t feel like buddying up next to one another), I can only speak to the testimony of those whom I know have had to endure dental discomfort. Apparently, it’s not all that fun, and not surprisingly, it’s a lot of fuss and work. Yet, of all the people I know who have worn braces on their teeth, not one of them wishes they wouldn’t have—they all endured the embarrassment and nuisance and have no regrets. Though there were times during which they wished otherwise, in the end they realized the pain was worth every tiny rubber band, every tightening twist from the orthodontist, and every endeavor to brush away bits of breakfast stuck within the mess of metallic wires.
I think life is like that. We all have messed up parts of our lives that aren’t as bright and as perfectly straight as they could be. Rather than do something about it, we live with our crooked irregularities, often embarrassed and ashamed. I know people who rarely smile because they are embarrassed of their teeth. Similarly, that’s true for many of us who are afraid that when we open up, people are going to see the misshapen parts inside. We’d rather cover up and be coy than do something about it.
You are never going to get the change you desire if you don’t take steps—often uncomfortable ones—to do something about it. Just like wearing braces, going through the essential steps to bring things into square isn’t necessarily easy. At first, it’s going to be awkward, foreign, and will possibly seem unbearable. Change isn’t always easy; and like wearing braces, results are not often seen overnight—it takes time and attention. It means showing up for appointments. It means enduring small, systematic turns of the screw. It means staying on top of the little things that will build up if unattended and cleaned away. It means resisting temptations that put your mess in close proximity to someone else’s mess, lest you find yourself in an extremely uncomfortable and embarrassing position—like grade school kids getting stuck together while kissing on the playground.
The great thing about enduring braces is that there is a positive outcome. When they’re eventually unnecessary, we can’t help but smile brightly, wanting all to see the big changes we’ve experienced. While it might seem from week to week as though nothing is really moving, when we look back at where we started, we can see change has happened, and is happening, and that makes moving forward easier to brave. If we want to realign things in our lives, we’re going to have to purposefully pursue it. And, even when things are uncomfortable, we’re going to have to keep actively turning those screws and enduring a little tender unpleasantness. It makes the difference between a shameful, diminutive smirk and an enormously beautiful, beaming smile.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. – James 1:2-4
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope… – Romans 5:3-4
I can do all things through him who strengthens me. – Philippians 4:13
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