Urinalysis

John Donne was an Anglican priest in London for ten years during the Black Plague. In that time, the plague surged three times. His writings reflect the ongoing threat of illness and death. He himself became sick and assumed he had the plague.*

During that illness, he wrote a series of devotions. He started by saying that humans become experts on their own health. We pursue the proper diet and excell at exercise. We do whatever it takes to have a strong, healthy body. But --as Donne puts it--"in a minute a cannon batters all, overthrows all, demolishes all."

With such uncertainty, "we are not sure we are ill," So, as Donne puts it in King James English, "one hand asks the other by the pulse, and our eye asks our own urine how we do."

When I read that recently, I thought, "How primitive. They didn't know anything about modern urinalysis. So what did they think they'd discover?" But that line came back to me when I got kidney stones a few days later. Guess who became preoccupied with their own pee!

We may not do a daily urinalysis, or take our pulse every hour, but healthcare workers are taking their temperature at least daily. It's the responsible thing to do these days.

But Donne turns to what is more important.
"Why is there not always a pulse in my soul to beat at the approach of a temptation to sin? Why are there not always waters {tears} in mine eyes, to testify my spiritual sickness?" 

We are anxious to monitor our physical health. What time and care do we invest in monitoring our spiritual health? Therefore, it's appropriate to ask God to do the monitoring, as David did:

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any way of pain in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way." Amen. (Psalm 139:23-24, NASB literal)

* https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/poets/john-donne.html
* Texts from: Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and Seuerall Steps in My Sickness. 1624. The Works of John Donne, Kindle Edition.