“Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor…Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” – Ecclesiastes 4:9,12, NKJV

When King Solomon signed up for his first dental Facebook group, he had all kinds of questions. What are the best agents to use for anterior bonding? How do I respond to my practice manager who pushes my front desk team to the point of daily frustration and thinks she is doing me a favor? How do I balance home life and office life? Any ideas on what’s going on upper right maxillary in this PAN?

Online presence and social media have collapsed the diameter of our world from 7,918 miles to the width of an iPhone keyboard. What can we learn from King Solomon and other biblical personalities when it comes to living out the ministry of dentistry?

The title of this blog makes Lesson #1 obvious—Don’t insist on going it alone. God knows we need each other. Connecting with good and Godly colleagues in dentistry may seem like worn out advice at this stage of the online era. But reaching out with a question can be worlds apart from “connecting” with someone who can help you grow. Think in terms of being a curator of responses and online personas. Given the choice of similar advice from two different respondents, you’ll stay miles ahead choosing those whose words are flavored with grace as opposed to greed. Don’t be surprised when God drops a potential lifelong mentor into your path like he dropped Philip into a chariot with a Eunuch. Some of the best relationships start with the simple statement, “I’d be interested to know what you’re reading” (Acts 8:30, my translation). God’s Spirit is always at work.

Lesson #2—Leaving the past behind opens the gates of glory. That’s what Paul said in Philippians 3:13-14, “…forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (NKJV). Far too often I hear from dentists whose futures are being hindered by being burned in the past. Paul had not been burned literally, but rest assured he had been burned: “…in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often…[thirty-nine stripes]… beaten with rods…stoned…” (2 Corinthians 11:23-26, NKJV); well, you get the idea. But Paul moves on at the beginning of Chapter 12 to tell us how he was “caught up into Paradise” (2 Corinthians 12:4, NKJV). Our visions will not likely reach that level, but looking unto Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) we, too, can be called heavenward regardless of a painful past.

Lesson #3—You’re put here for a reason. That’s what Dr. Titus learned about his assignment in the hellhole of a DSO call Crete Dental Group. God had directed Titus’ path with friendships like Paul and acquaintances like the Cretans who were present on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:11). And as a result, Titus’ next step after D4 was to be a young man whom his friend, Paul, reminded: “…I left you in Crete that you should set in order the things that are lacking…” (Titus 1:5, NKJV). That’s right—your first assignment at the helm of things might be the toughest assignment of your career. But He knows. And He cares. In the workplace of servants and masters, be an example of adorning “…the doctrine of God our Savior in all things” (Titus 2:10b, NKJV).

King Solomon was all about wisdom. He was not alongside Philip south of Jerusalem, beaten with rods in Palestine or alone in charge on Crete. But the wisdom he pursued has been passed down through the ages on pages. It has been made alive for the 21st century as in every century before. But Dr. Solomon knew, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14, NKJV). And he wants us to know it, too.