Toes and Teeth

You may read the title and think, “Toes and teeth have no correlation unless you’re a redneck.” You are probably right 9 out of 10 times. Here is the one case when you would be wrong. Toes and teeth are the only surgeries I have experienced.

My first outpatient procedures were performed on my grand toes when I was 11 years old. Ingrown toenails were causing infection, and the doctor thought it best to perform a procedure on them to eliminate future growth. While the procedures were less than desirable, the end result has blessed me to this day.

The other outpatient procedures were performed on my teeth. One was removed in 2015. It was a tooth I ignored, and it caught up with me one weekend. I stopped at an Urgent Care on a Friday night while traveling out of town. The goal was to keep the damage at bay, especially since I was between ministries and was scheduled to preach somewhere that Sunday. God dulled the pain enough for me to preach that Sunday, then the pain resumed immediately after the service. The tooth was removed the next morning.

The other teeth removals were the two wisdom teeth that actually came through. Those were removed on the Thursday leading into Labor Day weekend of 2021 so I could have a nice long weekend to recover. I was pastoring Oasis Church at the time and was determined to preach that Sunday, and preach I did. My mouth was not completely cooperative, so I toned down the intensity of my sermon delivery a few notches.

I hope this lovely tail of toes and teeth wasn’t so redneck that your IQ came down a few digits by reading this. But, it’s my story of surgeries. Nothing too glorious, and I’m glad it isn’t for this stage of life. Tune back in 10 years from now and the story could be different. We shall see!