If you are a Kiwi, you can now access your medical records online. When accessing mine, I was most interested to note the acceleration of medical care that I required the closer I got to my sixtieth birthday.
The one-off episodes came and went, but it was the tracking of key indicators that were most telling. The doctors’ micro-comments revealed their greatest concerns over high blood pressure, too much weight and high cholesterol levels. I might have had more concern about the blood-test readings if not for the “OK” at the line’s end. I guess they didn’t really matter anymore.
The concept of a “Spiritual Check-up” has been well promoted and we are all well-advised to check our ‘vital signs.’ It is the idea of a long-term, well-documented record of our life in Christ that fascinates me.
I know that most of us would prefer to forget our sins, failures and embarrassments along the way, but I think we could have learned from them. Unfortunately, the biggest hindrance to an objective accounting of the past is those one-off episodes that we allow to define us forever. Maybe we need to give serious thought to our own micro-comments.
Those signal markers that indicate that we have not improved in vital areas:
*Too high of an opinion of ourself when questioned.
*Too low of an opinion of the ‘immature.
“Too strong of a reaction when correcting.“
“Too weak of a reaction when help needed.“
“Too heavy a weight upon non-essentials.“
“Too light a weight upon doctrines.“
“Too much exercising of the will.“
“Too little exercising of self-control.”
There is great glory for Christ and his Kingdom when you grow in strength and knowledge in the Lord. Long-term patterns of thought, attitude, speech, and behaviour are clear indicators of our progress in the Lord. The best news is that all in Christ is forgiven. The past is still there and it can, properly handled, teach us a lot about ourselves.
John Staiger
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