Symptoms~ You would think that after all these years I would recognize the symptom of a condition that if I noticed it right away could be controlled with a specific drug taken in a specific dose in a specific way. The problem is that I didn't see it early because I wasn't looking for it where it appeared in my body. In fact, after all these years of mostly successfully controlling this condition it had never manifest where it did. Without going into specifics, my not recognizing the unique symptom and taking appropriate action right then, I have been suffering debilitating pain in my knee that yesterday put me to bed for most of the day. The truely sad thing is that I am on vacation with my family and extentions, and I missed out on a wonderful hike, some wonderful views, and delightful memories. This, all because I was thinking that my knee pain was one thing, when it was another. (Note-the medicine is working, and the pain is deminished where I will not miss the adventures of today.) Our spiritual natures also have this same dynamic. We have been taught certain things over the years, and those teachings have become a part of our spiritual natures, thus becoming the norm for the way we operate in the spiritual realm. We look at our lives a certain way, because that is the way we have always viewed our relationship with God. We have spent years cultivating our identity with respect to how eternal life operates, and it appears to work just fine, so why look anywhere else.  And then something hits us out of the blue, that causes us to question our spiritual existence, and whether we are on the correct path to salvation. We will then ignore this 'symptom' that if addressed would lead to life, taking us off a road that is leading to death, but we don't recognize it because we aren't looking for it 'over there'. The cure is found in the words of Jesus.