Centering prayer...and a trip to the dentist

So last week, I went to the dentist.  Trips to the dentist do not make my list of "favorite things to do."  In fact, they're pretty far from making that list.  The part of the dental visit that is always the most unsettling for me is what I call "having my teeth scraped."  The American Dental Association website politely calls this the "removal of calculus and plaque from all surfaces of the teeth."  Who knew that calculus was anything other than a math subject?  Though I don't particularly enjoy the scraping removal of calculus and plaque, it is a key part of the trip to the dentist.  (Try and tell me the tools pictured below don't make you just a little nervous.)

As I was sitting there, having my teeth scraped cleaned, a phrase from Thomas Keating's beautiful book, Intimacy with God: An Introduction to Centering Prayer, popped into my head.  (You never know when something's going to pop into your head.)  Keating writes very helpfully about the practice of Centering Prayer, in which we simply present ourselves to God.  In this style of prayer, we don't try to fix anything, we don't try to solve anything, we simply expose ourselves to God's presence.  Keating writes, "Our only activity consists in maintaining our intention to consent to God's presence and action during the time of prayer."  All we do is present ourselves to God for the duration of prayer - the recommended time is 20 minutes - and allow God to work in us.  'Here I am, Lord.  Do with me what you will.'

As I sat there in the dentist's chair, I thought, "Hmm.  That's interesting.  That sort of feels like what I'm doing right now.  I am 'consenting to the action of the dental hygienist during the time of my dental visit.'"

All of a sudden, it felt like there were actually some similarities between the "time of prayer" and the "time of visiting the dentist."  (Seriously.)  Here are three.

(1) Both are aimed at our well-being and health.  Prayer is aimed at discovering and developing our True Self, our healthy self, who we are in relationship to God.  Prayer is aimed at our spiritual health. A dental visit is aimed at having healthier, cleaner teeth - which is to say, our oral health.

(2) Both involve submitting to a "higher power."  Prayer involves submitting to the Higher Power.  Centering prayer, in particular, is simply about making ourselves available to God, exposing and submitting ourselves to God's presence and work.  Analogously, a dental visit involves submitting to someone with greater skill and knowledge about healthy teeth.  Admittedly, this is not your "Higher Power," but it is a "greater power," at least in terms of teeth.

(3) Both paths - while they lead to greater well-being - may lead through uncomfortable territory.  This similarity held the greatest insight for me.  I was well aware of how a dental visit can be uncomfortable.  Many people cringe simply upon hearing the word "dentist."  But prayer is supposed to be relaxing and soothing, right?  Some of the time, yes.  But I began to realize that the life of prayer can also be uncomfortable, as we expose ourselves to the healing Spirit of God.  Over time, the life of prayer will expose and uncover many things in us: our defensiveness, our attachments and addictions to worldly things, our fears, our resentments, and more.  All of these things are blockages between us and God, and all of them can be healed and removed, so that we experience deeper union with God.  But removing these obstacles will not be easy or painless.  We will discover that we are, in fact, quite attached and accustomed to some of them, even though they keep us from God.  But when God removes them - even if that removal hurts - we will be more free, more healthy, more truly ourselves.

Could it be that "sitting in the dentist's chair" is a metaphor for the life of prayer?????