What Are You Letting Pass Inspection?

Factories rely on vision systems to catch defects before they move to the next stage.

What if your life needed one too?

In this episode of Articulated Illustration, Dwane Richardson Sr. uses a manufacturing illustration to explore why unchecked thoughts, habits, relationships, and decisions often create unnecessary pain.

Sometimes our greatest challenge isn't what comes against us.

It's what we fail to inspect.

This episode will challenge you to ask one important question:

What have I been allowing to pass inspection?

Word of the Day: Inspection

Key Takeaways

•  Why every life needs a vision system. 
•  The danger of approving unhealthy patterns. 
•  How intentional inspection can protect your future. 
•  Why discernment matters before moving to the next stage. 

Quote
"The goal isn't perfection. The goal is inspection."

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

At my job, batteries move through a line on a conveyor belt. They go through what we call a vision system. Three cameras are watching, and not for decoration. They're there to expect. But to catch what the human eye might miss, we are human. So to make sure what's moving forward is supposed to move forward. And if something is wrong, or if something is off, something is out of place, that battery gets rejected. Now here's the question. What if your mind needs a vision system? What if every thought shouldn't be allowed to pass through? Every emotion should not be approved. Every relationship shouldn't be given access. And every opportunity shouldn't be accepted. What if some things keep getting through in your life because your internal cameras aren't working? Because at some point, the problem is not just what came down the line. The problem is what you allow to pass inspection. Welcome to Articulated Illustration, where we see things from unusual angles. I'm your host, Dwayne Richardson Sr. This podcast is sponsored by me. But if you want to invest in purpose and build something beautiful together, I'm here for it. Now, last episode, we talked about observational ignorance, how you know you can look at something from the surface and think you know the whole story. But today, I want to take that ideal a step further. Because it's one thing to be careful about what you think you see. But it's a whole nother story to expect what you allow to move forward after you see it. Seeing it clearly was step one. Today is step two. So, what are you doing with what you saw? Now, today I want to talk about something I see at work that has been sitting with me for a while. It's called a vision system. Batteries come down the line on a conveyor belt. They move through a process, and while they are moving, they are being inspected. Three cameras checking for defects. Something missing, something crooked, something out of place, something that doesn't meet the standard. And when the system catches something wrong, that battery gets rejected. And not because the system is emotional, and not because it's being mean. It's a piece of machinery. But because it's judging the battery, it rejects because something is wrong. And wrong should not keep moving forward. Now that part right there hit me. Because a lot of us don't have a rejection problem at all. We have an inspection problem. We keep letting fear through that should have been rejected. Insecurity that should have been rejected. People's opinions that don't even pay our bills should have been rejected. Old habits that should have been rejected. And then we wonder why our life keeps producing quality alerts. You know, sometimes the problem isn't the final product. Sometimes the problem is the inspection system. And the system itself has to know what it's looking for. Because you can't make adjustments or say something is right or wrong if you don't know what you are looking for, correct? Because if the system is off, the reading is also off. And if the reading is off, something good might get rejected. Now think about that for a second. How many times in our lives have we rejected something that was good? If your internal system is not calibrated, you'll misread what's moving through it. You approve fear because it sounds like caution. You may even approve insecurity because it sounds like humility. Approve laziness because it sounds like rest. And even approve pride because it sounds like self-respect. So today we're talking about calibration because you can reject what's wrong, but your system has to know what right looks like. Whatever passes inspection gets permission to move forward. Now that's true on the battery line. And it's also true in your life. At work, once a battery passes through the vision system, it keeps moving. It becomes part of the process. But if the system catches something wrong, that battery gets kicked out or rejected. It doesn't keep moving through like everything's fine. Why? Because defective product left unchecked becomes a bigger problem later. Now, apply that to your mind. A thought comes out of the line, I'm not good enough. Do you inspect it or let it pass? They don't respect me. Inspect that thought or let it pass. I always mess things up. I might as well quit. Because if you let those thoughts pass inspection, they don't stay harmless. They become destructive emotions. And eventually those emotions become decisions. Those decisions become habits, and those habits become patterns. And those patterns become a life. And some of what you are fighting today started as a thought that you never expected yesterday. Oh my goodness. So let's walk through it. The battery comes down the line on the conveyor belt. It's moving, it has a destination. But before it gets too far, it has to pass through inspection. Now one camera catches one angle, another camera catches a different angle, and they never catches something completely different. Why? Because one angle is never enough. Some things look fine from the front, but are off on the side. Good from the side, but wrong underneath. They're moving fast, but when the system catches the detail, something's not lined up. And some thoughts sound so true from one angle, but you expect them from another angle, and you realize that they are rooted in fear. Now, some relationships look good from one angle, but expect them from another angle, and there's manipulation. Some opportunities look like blessings from one angle, but they are really distractions. And some emotions truly feel justified from one angle. But your pride is running the show. And that's why you need more than one camera. You need a full, complete vision system. The first camera checks your thoughts. Because everything starts there. Before you say it, before you think it, before you do it, you think it. Before you quit, you will entertain it. And before you explode, you will justify it. So, camera one asks, What thoughts am I allowing to pass through? Because some thoughts are just not negative. They're defective. I'll never change. Defective. Nobody cares about me. Defective. One of my favorites I hear often, I'm too old to start. Defective. I've already failed, so why try? Defective. And this is a good one. God forgot about me. Very defective. And here's the danger, my illustrators. A defective thought doesn't always look defective when it first comes down the line. Sometimes it truly sounds responsible. Other times it sounds humble. And sometimes it sounds like wisdom. But the vision system still has to expect. Because fear loves to dress up like logic. Insecurity loves to dress up like humility. And laziness loves to dress up like rest or patience. Pride loves to dress up like self-respect. So camera one has to ask: is this thought true? Is it helpful? Is it based on facts or fear? And is it pushing me towards purpose or pulling me back into old patterns and bad habits? So if it's defective, reject it. Don't decorate it. Don't entertain it. Don't give it a room in your mind. Reject it. The second camera checks patterns. Because one thought might be random, but repeated thoughts become a pattern. At work, if one battery gets rejected, that matters. But if battery after battery gets rejected for the same reason, now you have to ask a bigger question. Something may be wrong upstream. The label may be crooked. That's life too. If you keep reacting the same way, you keep attracting the same kind of people, and you keep quitting at the very same stage, and you keep sabotaging peace when things get quiet, that's not just a moment, my friends. That's a pattern. And patterns need inspection. Camera two says, why does this keep happening? Why do I keep choosing what hurts me and delaying what helps me? And why do I call it bad timing when it might be poor discipline? Well, you may call it bad timing when it might be poor discipline because of lack of accountability. Why do I call it loyalty when it might be fear or starting over? Camera one catches the thought. Camera two, it catches the pattern. Because sometimes the problem is not one bad thought. It's a system that keeps producing the same defect. And that's a deeper conversation. Because some of us keep rejecting the battery, but never fixing the process. We reject one bad mood, but never fix the lack of sleep. We reject one toxic conversation, but we never fix the access we keep giving people. And you can't only deal with what gets rejected. You have to be honest and ask yourself. You have to be honest and ask the question, why does it keep showing up defective in the first place? The third camera checks influence. And because not everything moving through your system came from you. Some of it came from what you watch, what you listen to, who you talk to, and what happened to you. Well, somebody said years ago, and you are still letting that voice run the line, running rent-free in your head. Because we have to be honest and admit, influence is powerful. And sometimes the defective thought didn't originate in you that was planted. Somebody said that you weren't enough. Somebody made you feel this small. Somebody betrayed you. And years later, that old influence is still sending defective product down the line. Camel 3 says, What taught me to see myself this way? Who benefits from me staying insecure? And what am I consuming that keeps clouding my vision? What voice am I still treating like truth that should have been rejected years ago? Some people aren't struggling because they lack potential people. They're struggling because their vision system was trained by the wrong influences. They see their future through the lens of past disappointment. And they also see correction through the lens of rejection. They see discipline through the lens of punishment. And that's something I have to deal with. And that's why the third camera matters so much. You don't inspect thoughts without inspecting influence. Influence feeds the line, whether you want to believe it or not. Now, let's go back to the word of the day. Calibration. Now, the vision system can only expect correctly if it's calibrated correctly. If the camera's off, the reading is off. If the standard is wrong, the decision is also wrong. It goes hand in hand, it's a tandem. And some of us have eternal systems calibrated by pain, rejection, trauma, disappointment, even by survival mode. So now, even when something healthy shows up, guess what? We misread it. Somebody tries to love us and we call it suspicious. Somebody corrects us and we call it disrespect. And on top of that, God tells us to move, and we have the audacity to call it risk. We gotta do better, people.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

Peace shows up and we call it boring. And that may not be discernment.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

That may be supreme miscalibration. Your system might be reading wrong because it was trained by the wrong standard. And that's my illustrators, that's why healing matters so much. Why prayer matters, why accountability matters. Because you can't keep trusting a system that has not been recalibrated. And sometimes the prayer isn't God, show me something new. Sometimes the prayer is God, adjust how I see. My, my, my. Let me say this clearly. First and foremost, rejection is not always bad. We hear the word and the negative connotation that it comes with. We think pain. We think somebody walked away, a door closed. But we have to remember rejection and redirection can be protection. Rejection can be quality control. Now at work, when the battery gets rejected, the system is not being emotional. It's just doing its job. It's saying this cannot continue like this. And that's what some of us may need to learn to say. This thought cannot continue like this. This habit cannot continue like this. This relationship cannot continue like this. And this version of me most definitely cannot continue like this. Some things don't need more time. At the end of the day, they need more correction and more rejection. And some things don't need a deeper explanation. They need rejection. Some thoughts aren't there to be understood. They are there to be cast down. Remember, everything that shows up does not deserve a meeting. Some things deserve a no, an emphatic no. Now, here where it gets real. If bad things keep getting through your life, ask, is my vision system even working? Because sometimes we're not missing the signs. We are ignoring them. Sometimes the camera caught it, but we overrolled the system. My goodness, and I'm so guilty of that. Wisdom warmed us, but desires talked louder. Peace said no, but loneliness said yes. Conviction said stop. But pride said, keep going. So that's not always a vision problem. Sometimes it's an obedience problem, my illustrators. Your system can detect the defect, but you still have to respect the rejection. And we have to remember when we want something so bad, we have a tendency to ignore the warnings, quote unquote the red flags. But if we keep putting the same defective thing back on the line without fixing what's wrong, guess what? It's the boomerang effect. And Dwayne, what do you mean by that? Simple. What happens if you throw a boomerang? It comes back to you, right? Well, guess what? The same problem keeps coming back if you don't fix it. God rejected it. But we put it right back on the line. Wisdom rejected it, we put it back on the line. And check this out. And this is horrible. Peace rejected it. Peace. But we are not used to peace. We are so used to toxicity. Peace rejected it, but we put it back on the line. And then we get mad because we keep dealing with the same issue. And that really messes with your mental bandwidth. But the real question is, why do we keep approving what's already been rejected? Here's another layer. In manufacturing, if something bad gets past inspection and reaches the customer, it's no longer an eternal problem anymore. Now it's a quality alert. Now the customer sees what the plant missed. Now some things are supposed to get caught privately before they show up publicly. Some attitudes should be expected before they become words. And some habits should be corrected before they become consequences. Some pride should be addressed before it creates embarrassment. Because when your eternal inspection system fails, the defect shows up somewhere in your speech, your attitude, your relationships, your discipline, and your spiritual life. And by the time other people can see it, we want to act shocked. But why? Because if we're being honest, the system had been warning us a long time ago. We just kept letting it pass. We felt the conviction and we noticed the pattern. But just like the far side, it kept passing us by. Here is today's articulated illustration. The battery line represents your life. The batteries represent what moves through you every single day. Thoughts, emotions, habits, relationships, influences, and all of it moving through the line. And your vision system is your ability to expect what's coming through before you let it move forward. Camera one checks the thought. What am I thinking? Camera two checks the pattern. Why does this keep showing up? And the last camera checks the influence. Where did this come from? And calibration checks the whole system. And the correct calibration checks the whole system. Now, am I reading this correctly? If something fails inspection, it needs to be rejected. And not because you are trying to be perfect. Remember, my friends, we walk in water, not on water. We're not perfect. But because you are trying to protect the process, and not because you are better than anybody, but because you finally understand that everything cannot go forward with you. And some of us are praying for better outcomes while letting defective thoughts pass right through inspection. We want better peace, but we keep cosigning anxiety. We want better discipline, but we keep cosigning excuses. We want better faith, but we keep cosigning doubt, like it deserves the final word. At some point, you just cannot ask for a better life. You have to build a better inspection system. Now, let me bring this home. And please understand this. This isn't about judging everybody else. This is about looking in the mirror because I have let things pass that should have been rejected. I have let fear pass. My goodness, right here. Overthinking, insecurity, and even other people's opinions, once again, who don't pay no bills in my household at all. But I have let thoughts move through my mind like they had authority when they should have been stopped at inspection. And that's how you end up fighting battles that started at the checkpoint. Fighting battles, you have no business fighting. And the battle didn't start when you reacted. It started when you let the thought pass. The battle didn't start when you fell back into the pattern. It started when you stopped expecting the small things. And that's why little things matter. A little unchecked thought can become a powerful stronghold. A small compromise can become a lifestyle. And a small resentment can become bitterness. So no, this isn't small in the grand scheme of things. Because inspection matters, calibration matters, and your vision system definitely matters. Now, scripture tells us to guard our hearts, and that means everything cannot get in. The Bible also tells us to cast down imaginations. Every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Some thoughts are not meant to be entertained at all. They are meant to be rejected. And my question is, how do some of these thoughts even get invitations? You don't have to agree with every thought that enters your mind, and you don't have to obey every emotion that rises up. You don't have to carry every fear that shows up. You can reject it. And you can truly say that does not line up with who God called me to be. That does not line up with where I am going. That does not line up with peace. Because sometimes spiritual growth isn't receiving something new. Sometimes it's about rejecting what's been contaminating the system. I shake my head on that one, y'all. Sometimes it's about asking God to recalibrate your vision so you can stop approving what He has already rejected. So here's the practical question. What needs to be rejected before it moves any further? Maybe it's a thought, a habit, an excuse, a relationship. Well, I say the relationship, but let's go further. Let's be more concrete with it, more clear. It may be a person, a distraction, a fear. Maybe it's the version of you that keeps trying to come back. The version of you that has stronger regeneration powers than Wolverine and Deadpool put together. By the way, that's an episode coming up on that, but I digress. So this week, let us slow down and inspect what's moving through your mind. And don't let every thought pass. Don't let every trigger pass. Put it through the system. Camera one, what am I thinking? Camera two, is this a pattern? And the last and final camera, where is this influence coming from? Then you ask the calibration question. Is my system even reading this correctly? Because sometimes what you call truth is fear, what you call wisdom is avoidance, and what you call patience is procrastination. And I know about that too well. I try to dress it up at times. What you call confidence is pride, and sometimes what you call rejection is actually God's protection. So slow down, inspect it, and check the angle, check the source, and if it doesn't pass inspection, reject it. Not later. Now because if you let it pass now, you have to deal with the consequences later. The mic dropped. Once again, the goal is not perfection, the goal is inspection. Because you're not going to catch everything. You're not going to have a perfect system because sometimes the vision system fails. But you still need to have an inspection system in place regardless. And that system better be and needs to be calibrated. Because what you don't expect, you may eventually accept. And you know this to be actual and factual. And what you keep accepting, you may eventually become. So check the thought, check the pattern, and check the influence, check the calibration. And please, my illustrators, please, let's stop approving what should have been rejected. That's your vision system. Thank you for listening or looking at articulated illustration. And if this episode has hit home for you, or maybe you know somebody that needs to recalibrate their vision system, send it to them, share it, and always remember to do what's absolutely necessary every day. And keep illustrating your life. Why? Because it's your dream, your vision, your pun intended. Keep the pen in your hand. And until the next illustration, I'll see you later. And guess what? You may need to clean your sensors in your vision system. And I'm out.