Challenging destructive spiritual core beliefs is like going to the dentist to get a tooth fixed.

There was a man who heard an extra pop inside his mouth as he chewed on a piece of his favorite hard candy. He didn’t feel any different and there wasn’t any pain, but it startled him a bit.

As the weeks went by, a tooth on that side of his jaw began to feel a little sensitive. Ice cream was a challenge. So was coffee. A few months later, that slight ache got worse and worse until he had a full blown toothache. Still, he thought he could handle the pain with a few aspirin and an occasional application of Orajel.

Soon, that ache began to throb. It throbbed a LOT. It throbbed so much that it kept him awake at night, which made him more and more cranky during the day. It was robbing him of his peace, happiness, and productivity.

The man hated seeing the dentist. He was always afraid the dentist would try to use a jackhammer on him.

But the pain really was unbearable, so even though he knew that it was going to be painful to go to his dentist, he made an emergency appointment. Luckily, his dentist had an opening that very morning at 11:00. Rather than being reckless, the dentist actually cared a lot about the man’s pain and fear, so he treated him well.

The dentist poked and prodded and looked at the offending tooth from all directions and finally announced that the tooth had been split in two. If the man had come in much earlier, the tooth might have been saved, but at this point, it would have to go.

“Do it!” said the man. “I can’t stand the pain another day!”

So the dentist and his assistant deadened the man’s jaw and carefully extracted the broken, dead tooth before lunchtime.

It hurt terribly once the anesthetic wore off that afternoon and evening, but by nighttime, the pain wasn’t so bad anymore. He finally got some rest. Within a few days, the pain was completely gone – replaced by a tingling feeling that the man knew as the result of his jaw beginning to heal.

Within a few weeks, even that tingling was gone. His jaw felt fine, and he was ready to replace the gap in his teeth with a bridge.

He couldn’t help but wonder why he had made himself endure the pain for so long.

Are you ready to challenge the self-destructive belief that God doesn’t love you anymore? That God couldn’t possibly love someone like you? It may hurt just a bit as you let go of the old, dead dogma that someone fed you long ago, but the new tingling you soon will feel as you heal will be worth it.

Pretty soon, you’ll be ready for a new bridge – a bridge to an empowered, happy, and fulfilling life that comes from realizing that God really DOES love YOU just the way you are.

You can make an appointment with God for this Sunday. Don’t worry. You’ll have help through it all. The Dentist has LOTS of assistants.