Is Your Filter Clogged?

Most of us gain a certain amount of discernment and insight with age and experience. (Some of us more than others.) But, let’s face it, the reality is that we ALL have prejudices, biases, and perceptions based on our unique experiences. Some are good, some are bad, some are fair, and some are unfair. It’s human nature.

Filters are used a LOT in our current society. Do any of y’all have water filters? We have a water filter on the kitchen counter. The advertising boasts that you can pour nasty, green, stagnated pond water into the top and get perfectly safe, clean, pure, drinking water out of the spigot. You pour in one thing and get out another thing. What went in originally may or may not resemble what comes out of the spigot. The dirtier the water you use in the top, the more often you must clean the filter. And if it gets clogged there is no telling what you might get out of the spout. (FYI, no, I have NOT actually poured pond water into my water filter…no matter how cool the demo video looks.)

We have filters on our phone that change the pictures we take. Filters can give us better lighting, more or less color contrast, or change the color of the picture completely. They can “fix” our blemished skin, make our face fuller or thinner, and some of the ones the kids use (on Snapchat or similar apps) will even give you bunny ears or the mouth and nose of a puppy dog. Even a smudge or dirt on the lens of the camera (or phone) can change the way the picture looks. Filters alter, not the ACTUAL subject of the picture, but the way we see the subject in the end. Filters alter one’s ultimate perception of a thing. We all filter new experiences through the biases and prejudices in our background.

I have to tell y’all, I cannot STAND malted milk balls. You know, like Whoppers? As kids, we received an array of candy on certain holidays. My brother loved malted milk balls, and I would do the best I could to trade him Reese’s peanut butter eggs for the malted milk balls that I was given. In the absence of that being successful, I would just give them to him because I thought they were nasty. That is my experience. So now, even though I am…er…uh…*cough* somewhat older, when somebody mentions “malted” anything my reaction is not a favorable one. I admit most of the time I even avoid trying something with that description because, based on experience, I don’t think I will like it. That is MY perception. That is one of the prejudices that I am filtering life through…the dislike of malted anything. It’s a bias of mine. One could argue that it is fair or unfair, but it’s there.

Could I CHANGE that perception? Possibly. I could actively seek out other “malted” foods and keep trying them until I eventually found something I liked. OR I could go through life with an attitude of “WHY BOTHER?” and just reach for the Reese’s Peanut Butter Egg instead, because I KNOW I am going to like that, so why waste my time?

Do you see where I am going with this? We all have these preconceived notions, and they are all subject to change. But that change takes effort.

Philippians 1:9-11 NIV says, “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”

We are to grow in love, so that our discernment – our insight — our perception — will be filtered through that love.

Romans 12:2 NIV says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Basically, we can control WHICH lens we filter things through. We can continue to use the old, worldly lens that we have developed over a lifetime. OR we can be transformed. We can walk in Biblical love, stay in the Word, and begin to develop another lens.

What does your current filter look like? Is it clogged or dirty? What if we filtered everything through Biblical love? What if we processed everything through the lens of the Word? Would your perception change? What would that look like? Think about it, perhaps that one act would be the start of something big!

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