In the medical field, vital signs are comprised of blood pressure, pulse, respiration, oxygen saturation level and temperature. These five components help give caregivers some general information about how a patient is doing in the clinical setting. But just as these vital signs are taken regularly to know about a patient’s physical condition, it may also be necessary to periodically check our own spiritual vital signs as well. After all, we are both physical and spiritual beings. We need to constantly check our spiritual condition to track improvement or need for change in certain areas of our lives. In many cases, our spiritual problems lay hidden unless we make a conscious effort to find and address them.

What are our spiritual vital signs?

In The Prodigal God (Dutton, 2008) author Tim Keller takes the Bible’s most famous parable and presents it from a radically different perspective, challenging preconceived notions about what it means to be “lost.”

At NYU, a big temptation is to succumb to living in survival mode—barely getting through, but not thriving. We have tuition to pay, papers to write, meetings to attend, tests to study for, and relationships to keep up with. And we do all this in the context of having more independence than ever before in one of the most demanding cities in the world.

In my life’s work as a nurse at a cancer hospital, I see and hear of so many “medical miracles” that make me revel at the timing and precision of coincidental events, leading to certain “moments of truth” in the lives of the individuals experiencing them. I’ve seen patients admitted for symptom management (e.g. chemotherapy-related dehydration and decreased appetite), where something as simple as unrelated back pain that had been long ignored led to the discovery of a tumor compressing against a nerve which could have been detrimental had it not been discovered and treated at that instant, rather than at a much later time when the symptom (and disease) would have worsened. I’ve seen patients who were bedbound and barely responsive on day one of hospital care, and then two weeks later, they are walking-talking miracles of a doctor’s surgical hands, a nurse’s diligent care, a physical therapist’s direction, a family member’s hope, their own will power, and who knows what other forces beyond human recognition.

2009 was a hard year. The economy crashed. Overwhelming numbers of people lost their jobs. Wars took place in the Middle East. Natural disasters occurred around the world. There were floods in Asia, forest fires in California. And last but not least, swine flu caused a panic all over North America and the rest of the word…