But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  1 Corinthians 11:28

Some of my family members tease me about the amount of luggage that I take on a trip.  In my younger days before the health issues took center stage, I used to be able to pack rather efficiently.  However, things are a bit different now.  Because I no longer tolerate cold weather or changes in weather well, my luggage often contains everything from shorts to winter sweaters.  Further, in addition to a case for my toiletries, I have another one just for the medicines that I need or may need.  Consequently there is some concern when we’re flying as I’m worried about the weight limit for checked luggage.  It requires a bit of scrutiny to make sure that I take what I need but not so much that I’m over the limits.  I am most efficient and discerning when I have time to lay everything out that I think I need and then carefully examine it and evaluate what I truly need versus what I can leave behind or risk going without.  If I’m not careful, it’s easy to go over the limits and find myself weighed down with luggage and additional expense.  Life is like that too.  If we don’t examine ourselves and sort out our lives, we often carry around a lot of unnecessary and even harmful baggage.  In the book “The Emotionally Healthy Church, Peter Scazzero compares us to an iceberg.  “About ten percent of an iceberg is visible to the surface.  That is the part of our lives of which we are consciously aware.  Note, however that the Titanic sank because it collided with a section of the submerged 90 percent of an iceberg.”  In other words, many of our problems with other people and how we handle difficult situations is greatly impacted by the 90 percent of which we are unaware.  That is why several passages in scripture, including the one above, call for us to examine ourselves.  It’s not intended to make us feel bad about ourselves, but rather to deal with negative issues so that we can walk more closely with our Lord, enjoy better relationships and, in general, have a better quality of life spiritually and emotionally.