Dermatology appointments and discipline

As I have grown older, I have added to the number of medical appointments I must attend.  Long gone are the days of being asked “Who is your primary care physician?” and me smirking while answering, “I don’t have one.  Don’t really need one.”  Now, I do have a PCP, an Ortho Doc, and a Chiropractor that are all seen at least semi-regularly.  The most recent one I’ve added, though, is my dermatologist.  Nothing to be alarmed about, but I do see him annually.

At my last visit, I had a short list of things I wanted to ask him about.  A bump here or a discolored mark there…again, nothing painful or serious, but I thought I may as well ask.  And he dismissed every single one of my questioned spots.  “That’s normal”, he said, “When we get to be our parents’ ages, this kind of stuff happens.”

However, there were three spots I didn’t ask about that he did attend to – all on the left side of my face.  He froze a spot on my temple, another on my cheek, and a third spot at the top of the backside of my ear.  “Again, nothing to worry about”, he assured me, “all three are precancerous, but it’s best to get rid of them now before they become a problem.”

I wouldn’t have guessed any of those spots were even worth questioning…and two of them used to stare back at me in the mirror each morning!  I had no chance of seeing the one on the backside of my ear, though.  So, overall, I’m thankful for my dermatologist’s expertise and observation skills.  Even if that freezing spray stings a bit in the moment, and my skin ends up all red, tender, and semi-squishy as I healed over the next week.

Receiving discipline can be a little like that, can’t it?  We want to work on our 3-point shot, and coach has us doing dribble drills.  We want to go out with friends, but dad says it’s time to mow the lawn.  We expect our boss to put us on one project, and instead, we end up doing something completely different.  We go to the gym because we want stronger arms and legs, but our instructor has us spending a lot of time working on our core and back muscles.  What we expect as our next step isn’t always what we need to work on next.

I certainly believe that God works this way, too.  If I start hitting all the red lights and get stuck behind slow people in the grocery check-out line, my immediate thought is, “Funny, I don’t remember praying to have more patience.”  When I’m made aware of situations and organizations needing assistance that I am able to provide, but I wasn’t thinking about giving away my time or money…I suddenly have a choice to make.  When I get “that call” I’ve been dreading…how will I respond?  When I am confronted with the suffering of a broken world, and despair threatens to soak my brain and weigh down my heart…where will I turn?

Towards the end of his letter, the author of Hebrews had this advice:

Hebrews 12:7,9-12
Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons.  For what son is there that a father does not discipline? ...Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them.  Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live?

For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness.  No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Sometimes, God is working on areas of our lives that we wouldn’t have chosen to work on next.  He’ll use circumstances to challenge and grow us…or grow our dependency on Him.  And it’s not fun in the moment.  However, we can’t be surprised when God’s path and plan are different than ours.  After all, He sees a bigger picture than we do.  His constant goal is that we grow so we can share His holiness – and this goal goes above and beyond our small, selfish desires for comfortable circumstances. 

God uses suffering as discipline, frequently working in the areas of our lives we think are ‘ok’ for the moment.  His work on us and with us right now through painful situations can be like treating my pre-cancerous spots.  While they’re not a huge issue at the moment, let’s just take care of them now while they are small, before they become a larger, more life-impacting problem later.

We just have to trust that God knows what He’s doing.  Even if it stings in the moment.

Keep Pressing,
Ken