Self-Examination—Again?

Sometimes it seems the lessons never end! Even after the Feast of Unleavened Bread I learned more lessons about deleavening—and self-examination.

In my previous blog post I recounted an incident that happened during last year’s Feast of Unleavened Bread that caused me to rethink the self-examination process.

Then the Days of Unleavened Bread ended and …

I breathed a sigh of relief thinking that I had made it through the week—not spotlessly, but thankful I could learn from my mistakes. So the following weekend I was putting away some dishes when I realized that the two corner cabinets (lazy Susans) needed some big-time organization.

Not again!

Cleaning the corner cabinets where the plastic containers and other miscellaneous kitchen paraphernalia cavort every night is not my favorite chore.

I emptied the four enormous rotating shelves onto the counter. They were mostly littered with lost lids, funnels, a food scale, pet dishes, plastic pitchers, a few containers with matching lids—and two beautiful quart containers handsomely decorated by two of my students. One contained a brownie mix (unleavened!) but the other had an oatmeal cookie mix!

What? Could I have done it again? The answer is—yes!

What happened?

So here are the facts:

• I made a foolish assumption that there was no leaven in the corner cabinets—that is not where I keep it.
• There are other people who live in my house who could put leavening in places I would not.
• Perhaps I inadvertently stuck these containers in the cabinet just to get them out of the way and I forgot about them.

What lessons can I transfer?

So here I was again—what lessons can I transfer into my spiritual life?

• I need to revisit some “corners” of my life. Perhaps I don’t look in some places—areas I don’t expect to find sin. Perhaps after 40-plus years of self-examination I have gotten into the habit of looking only in the “usual places” where I know I will find sin but conveniently avoiding other places.
• I need to consider how the actions of others could impact my life. I need to take responsibility for what I allow to come into my life and influence my thinking and my actions.
• Maybe I inadvertently laid the groundwork for this sin and did not remember. If I did stow this seed of future sin in this corner, I did not consider how it would impact my future. We always need to consider how our actions will affect our future. Otherwise we are being myopic and shortsighted, to say the least.

Dig deeper

It is wonderful to consider God’s plan—the fact that we must repeat these yearly reminders in order to dig deeper, examine closer, see ourselves as God does and be willing to change.

And, again, I see that self-examination is a full-time responsibility!

For more about the lessons of leaven and deleavening, see “What Is Leaven and What Does It Picture?”