Lip Balm and Need :: How Necessity Breeds Clear Thinking

Few things are as painful and annoying simultaneously as severely chapped lips.  Not only is there supreme discomfort, there is the constant re-injury of the already aggravated areas every time you smile, laugh, eat, yawn or do anything that involves your lips.  The pain induces the dog-like response of licking the wound, which only serves to intensify the existing problem, making the whole process cyclical, repetitive, and incredibly annoying!  I hate chapped lips!

Luckily for me, though, I only get this affliction a couple times per year.  My lips are like the Porche of lips…0-60 so quick it makes your head spin.  I go from normal, no-need chops to a hamburger-like orifice on my face in what seems like minutes.  One minute I’m fine; the next, I’m shriveled and cracked, begging for some moisture.  It’s really bizarre.

If you know me, you know that I don’t like anything that has to do with moisturizing.  I don’t like lotion, conditioner, lip balm, hand cream, etc.  Not that those things are bad, I just don’t like using them and I’m stubborn.  I could probably benefit from all of the aforementioned products, but I really don’t like having ooey-gooey stuff on me and I’m reluctant to re-apply when needed.

I’m just not a moisturizer.

That is, until the chapped lips strike.  At that point, all of my wife’s continual application of her Nivea lip balm starts looking pretty smart.  At that point, everything changes.  Her seemingly unending supply of lip medicine begins to look pretty enticing and very wise, all of the sudden.  The next thing I know, I’m groping for relief, placing my lips’ salvation on a little tube,  scavengering through my desk, car, and everywhere between for a portion of the very stuff I detest every other day of the year.

Why?  Why do I suddenly drop the donkey-like hard-headedness over a bit of nominal pain?  Why do my former convictions fall away so effortlessly?  So quickly?

The answer is simple:  knowledge of necessity.

Once the pain and irritation become great enough to require attention, my attention they receive.  In an incredible twist, all my opinions and reasons for disdain become absolutely moot.  All my stubbornness melts and gives way to open, clear and receptive thought.  The hurt makes me heed.  My discomfort opens my eyes.

Faith is a lot like that, really.  My faith, in particular, followed that exact path before I found the real Savior.  The real Jesus.  Raised in church and around other who casually went there on Sundays, I was no stranger to the story of a virgin giving birth, a boy growing into a man, and a carpenter who was acknowledged as God’s son, giving his life to redeem humanity and raising Himself from the grave.  I heard it.  And like the 20 tubes of lip balm around my house, the story sat in a drawer or on a night stand, unwanted and, in my opinion, unneeded for a long time.  That is, until desperation came.  Until my life became so twisted and painful that I finally recognized my need for Him.

And then everything changed.

All of the sudden I had a knowledge of my necessity for someone or something to save me, redeem me and deliver me from the person I had become.  And that someone was Jesus.  He found me at my lowest point, picked me up and dusted me off.  He offered His life to me, and I’ve never looked back.  But He was always there!  He was always around, waiting on me to realize I needed Him.  Waiting for me to become humble enough to admit that I’m full of sin, dishonesty and pain.  He was waiting for me to understand the depth of my need for Him.  And at the very moment I saw it, He was available and ready to provide.

It was the knowledge of necessity.

What about you?  Are you this way?  Did it take you getting to the end of your rope to see Him clearly?  Have you seen Him at all?  Perhaps not.  Perhaps you are reading this and you’ve never fully realized your need for a Savior.  Your need for Jesus.

Either way, I’d love to discuss it all with you…

Related posts:

1. God, Adam and Eve :: Why Love and Control Are Not the Same
2. UK’s Big Letdown :: How Do You Face Adversity?
3. The Creation Museum :: Why It Made My Heart Ache
4. God, Fortresses and Rocks :: A Reflection on Psalm 71