The Examination Room Dr. Ritch Boerckel
Senior Pastor
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Last year was a year of seeing several specialist doctors. In addition to my general practice doctor, I went to a dentist, an optometrist, an ophthalmologist, a gastroenterologist, a dermatologist, two neurologists and I even asked for help from a gynecologist! (He is a friend who helps me from time to time.) All these doctors were nice people who seemed to have my best interest in view. Yet I approached all of them with a measure of fear and concern. I knew that they would be inspecting my body very closely and in places that are most often covered. I knew that they might be cutting away some pieces of me that while superfluous to my overall enjoyment of life, I prefer to leave in place. I knew that they might be sending those pieces to places where they would be microscopically
observed with the potential that bigger pieces would have to be removed from my person. I knew that one of them would be sticking needles in me, and sending painful shocks through my muscles. Another would be cutting on both of my eyeballs! All of these acknowledgements made me view these appointments with less than an enthusiastic spirit. But I went to them anyway. Why? Because some matters are too important to ignore. God calls us to care for our souls with the same kind of intense concern we have for our physical bodies. Such concern expresses itself in multiple ways, but one such action is the necessary appointment with God for the examination of our soul. David engages such an appointment when he prays, “Search me, O Continued on page 2