Filters
My head, shoulders, and back were contorted into positions never intended for the human body, while attempting to change the cabin air filter in our SUV. Cabin air filters are generally located under/behind the glove compartment on the passenger side. Can you visualize it? It looked so simple on the U tube tutorial. Really. Just a few screws…
As I felt for hidden screws in the dark recesses under the dashboard (while struggling with my attitude), it occurred to me how many things in our lives have filters. In the car alone, there is the oil filter, fuel filter, cabin air filter, and certainly other filters I know not of. The dryer has a lint filter, the air handler in our home has multiple filters, the pool has 4 different filters, the vacuum cleaner is a big filter, and now we all wear masks, a type of filter as well. If you wear glasses, they filter what you see, turning fuzzy into sharp, so that it makes sense. Some cigarettes are even filtered (a bit ironic).
Basically, filters remove what is unwanted in the air, the oil, the water, or whatever is being filtered. They make pure. When filters go unattended, well, nothing good comes of it. Reduced efficiency, overheating, increased energy consumption, perhaps even a burned up appliance/car.
When David wrote “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps.119:105), I’m tempted to add (I know, we don’t add) “And a filter for my mind.” Earlier in Psalm 119, he wrote “How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.” (v.9) I might say “By cleaning the filter of our mind regularly.” And again in verse 11, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” Or “That I might filter out what displeases You.”
God’s word, in fact, is the filter through which we are to look at life, and live our lives. When we neglect God’s word, well, nothing good comes of that, either. Decreased joy, growing cynicism, a numbness toward sin, a lack of desire for the things of God, even a plastic coated Thanksgiving/Christmas.
Everything functions better when the filters are clean. Life makes sense when we regularly spend time in His word. Let me encourage you to check your life filters today. It’s amazing how quickly they become clogged with all that life throws at us. Time with the Lord is time well-spent, allowing all of the moving parts of our lives to function as He desires.
