MAY 23, 2005

SPIRITUAL SMOG CHECK
by Pastor George Van Alstine

One of the responsibilities of owning a car is to make sure it is running efficiently. We should want to do this for our own car’s sake, so that we are not spending unnecessary money on gas, oil and repairs. But the State of California also has an interest in this, because our car’s inefficiency has an effect on all our neighbors as well. We call this effect smog. The State requires us to submit our car to a smog check every two years. If it doesn’t pass the first time, we have to pay for mechanical work that will enable it to pass the retest.

Spiritual smog is even more damaging than physical smog. Sure, when our spiritual lives have a major breakdown, we crawl to the Great Mechanic for an overhaul. But wouldn’t it be better if we kept ourselves more spiritually fit through a regular schedule of check-ups and adjustments?

The spiritual smog check that many Christians have found to be helpful is confession. This has been institutionalized in the Roman Catholic church into a practice that is designed to prepare a person to be ready to participate in the Communion Service at The Lord’s Table. In their spiritual discipline, Catholics make a private appearance in a confessional booth before a priest who listens to a list of the person’s known sins, then prescribes exercises for a spiritual tune-up. We Protestants don’t believe a priest should be the one we confess to, so we confess directly to God. We agree that an important time for this spiritual smog check to happen is just before we partake of The Lord’s Supper, which for us is celebrated the first Sunday of every month.

Regular confession clears the air in our personal lives, so that our relationship with the Lord can be periodically renewed. But its consequences are not just personal. As with physical smog, unconfessed sin can affect others around us, fouling up their atmosphere as well. Cars that fail the smog test badly are labeled “gross polluters” by the State. Spiritual “gross polluters” can seriously limit the health and efficiency of an entire church congregation.

Psalm 139 provides a pattern for regular confessional smog checks that can keep us from becoming “gross polluters” :
“Search me, Oh God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
(Psalm 139:23-24)
This simple prayer expresses complete openness to God, nothing held back or hidden. And it concludes with a strong desire to operate in the future in the smog-free atmosphere of “the way everlasting.”

Your spiritual engine will purr along, giving you miles of worry-free progress if you keep it in fine tune. Others around you will also have an easier time breathing God’s fresh air when you’re around. So let’s not resent those confessional smog checks. Let’s look forward to the times, at least once each month, when we say “Search me, Oh God.”