I've been fighting a toothache for over a month now. I started popping ibuprofen for it in Orlando at the national UCC Search and Call conference, continued in Dayton at the Great Lakes Regional Church Start Event, went on to De Forest for a couple of meetings and La Crosse for Diane Martin's installation, kept up the "Vitamin I" during a flight to Bangor to be part of our in-care student, Burt Williams', mid-career review. Finally, home for a couple of days, I got into the dentist, who, of course, could find nothing wrong. He adjusted my bite a little and sent me on up to my family gathering for Christmas. The tooth didn't get better.

After a great Christmas punctuated by ibuprofen dosings, I came home, ready to face a dreaded root canal. On the way to the dentist, in a hurry, I failed to do what every kindergartner learns to do when crossing the street -- look both ways. The third call I made after the car in the far right hand lane hit me was to the dentist, cancelling the root canal.

Both drivers were ok; both cars badly damaged. My wallet will be lighter for the cost of a ticket for "failure to yield."

I spent a few days nursing a stiff neck and some wounded pride, waiting for the rescheduled dentist appointment. Today was the day.

It's amazing how much a problem that doesn't show up on an xray can hurt! It's those hidden pains that creep up and smack us much of the time, it seems. In dentistry, at least, they can give you Novocaine to numb you up and help the professionals help you. That's what they did today. And, of course, I ended up with the puffy jaw, lopsided lips, and inability to drink without dribbling for which Novocaine is so renowned.

The problem with Novocaine is that it takes its own sweet time wearing off. And as it wears off, it starts to itch. It's not an itch you can scratch; it's just a "Hello! I'm your mouth coming back to life!" itch. One of those tingly, kind of painful itches that signals a change.

Novocaine is not the only thing that numbs us. The images of disaster in Asia sweep over us, too unimaginable to process. They get added to the images of violence and war, poverty and despair that confront us from every side. It's hard not to be numbed by it all. If we really let ourselves feel it all in all its force, I don't know that we'd be able to get up and walk around in the world.

We can't let ourselves live in that numbed state, though. We have to let the Novocaine wear off, even though the wearing off itself may bring discomfort. We must allow the images and stories of hurting people around the world to enter into our consciousness, stir our hearts, provoke our tears, evoke our empathy, and move us to compassionate action. To do less is to be less than fully alive, less than fully present to the world God has given us.

The Novocaine wore off my tooth about 5:30. It's about 9:00 now. My tooth still hurts, but I'm convinced that if I live with it for a while, it will get better.

So will the world.