Daily Spiritual Inspections

My experience on the job helps me see the importance of regular spiritual inspections.

How often should we inspect ourselves spiritually?

Once a year just before taking the bread and the wine of the New Testament Passover? Monthly? Daily?

“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified” (2 Corinthians 13:5).

My job has helped me understand the importance of regular inspections.

Pre-trip inspection

I am a transportation specialist. My responsibility is to move precious cargo from point A to point B safely and on time.

But before I can do that, I need to do something very important—inspect my truck and trailer each morning before it moves. This is called a pre-trip inspection, and there are more than 100 different things to check. It does not matter how busy I am or how little I want to do it. This could be the difference between life and death later in the day.

To start, I need to check all fluid levels and make sure everything is properly secure and in good working condition underneath the hood.

Second, I climb inside the cab and check that all gauges are in their proper range. It is vital that I check for leaks in the air brake system. If a leak is found, the truck will be considered out of service and should not be moved until it is fixed.

Third, I check horns, wipers, heater, windows and mirrors and make sure that emergency equipment is not missing and is fully charged.

Fourth, I climb back out and do a walk-around. I check that all tires are properly inflated and that all lights are working so I can have good communication with others on the road around me.

If I fail to do these inspections, there will be a greater chance of a breakdown that will put me behind schedule. This will add stress to my day. There are other reasons the truck could break down, but I don’t want it to be because I did not do my job.

Post-trip inspection

Then at the end of the day we do an inspection called a post-trip.

The post-trip inspection is simpler. You just check for any problems that could have occurred during the trip and, if there are any, write them up for the mechanic to fix.

Daily spiritual inspection

Now back to my daily spiritual inspection. Have I spent enough time making sure that I am spiritually safe to travel down this road called life?

Do I examine myself each morning to see if there is something going on that could cause bigger problems later in the day? What course of action do I take if I notice something is wrong? Should I make a mental note and seek help, or should I quickly close the hood and act like it’s not there?

If I don’t give a problem the attention that it needs, I can cause a lot of harm to myself and others around me.

When Jesus returns, we want to be in the right place at the right time, instead of being out of service somewhere along our journey. We want to hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servants.”

Helen Dubois is a member of the Grand Rapids, Michigan, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.

For more about spiritual self-inspections, see:

• A Spiritual Multipoint Inspection
• What Is More Important: What I Do or What I Am?
• Baptism, Commitment and Recommitment