A First Spiritual Lesson for Every Christian Dentist
This article originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of FOCUS.
Gordon Wong
The primary lesson that all Christians, and especially dentists, ought to learn early in their Christian walk is to be thankful in everything, but especially when things don’t work out as you planned. God uses disappointments, failures, even financial setbacks in our lives to discipline us because He loves us as His children, and He wants to teach us some special lesson. God is able to use our setbacks for His greater purpose and will for our lives. When we weather these reversals, God works to strengthen our character and equip us for what life throws at us in the future.
The most important theme of Paul’s letters to the Corinthian believers is “power through weakness.” Humankind’s yearning from the very beginning has always been the lust for power. Adam and Eve traded disobedience for power. And yet today, people still strive for more money, more reputation and more control as a hidden desire for power. It is evident in government, economics, finance, social networks, the professions and sadly, even in our churches. Power! It poisons like alcohol and addicts like cocaine. It was Lord Acton, the 19th century British politician, who was famously known for his quotation, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” (John Stott, Through the Bible Through the Year. Daily Reflections from Genesis to Revelation (Oxford: Lion Hudson Limited, 2006), 362.)
The Bible plainly cautions about the use and misuse of power. Paul’s message to the Corinthian church is God’s supernatural power working through humankind’s weakness. Paul gives us three illustrations of this divine truth. Firstly, we see it in the gospel where the weakness of the cross is God’s power to bring salvation. (1 Corinthians 1:17-25) Secondly, we see how God chose the weakness of the Corinthian believers to shame the strong. (1 Corinthians 1:26-31) Thirdly, we see it in Paul’s “weakness and fear and with much trembling” as he came to witness to the Corinthian people. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5) God’s reply to Paul’s pleading to remove the thorn in his flesh was, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (1 Corinthians 12:9 ESV) God used a weak tool (Paul) to deliver weak news (the cross) to weak persons (the marginalized). We see the power of God shining through these threefold weaknesses.
Throughout my dental career, from student to practitioner, I have experienced many reversals, disappointments and failures. But God has turned what appeared to me as setbacks into better opportunities to discipline me. Writing supplemental examinations in third year dental school did not prevent me from acceptance into the oral surgical residency. The disappointment of losing a prime job offer in Toronto to my fellow oral surgery resident opened the door to trust God to open a practice in Sault Ste. Marie, a city that never had an oral surgeon. After twenty years of demanding work and hospital on-call, I suffered a major physical and mental burnout. I needed months to regain my strength and years to fully recover mentally. However, I learned to say, “Thank you, Lord, for this failure, this disappointment, this setback. I am trusting that you are working out your good and perfect plan for my life through this experience.” Thanking God means that you are trusting implicitly in his divine power to work in your weakness. Christ’s command to you is, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18 ESV)