Choosing My Filter

Don’t you hate it when you find grounds in your coffee? I am not a barista or even close to being a “coffee snob,” but I imagine there can be multiple reasons for such grit in my morning java. The most common reason I’ve been told, when using a plain ol’ drip coffee maker, is the wrong grind. Too coarse and perhaps you don’t experience the full flavor. Too fine (my tendency) and the water backs up and spills over into the pot, taking bean particles with it. Yuck.

A filter is supposed to take care of this problem. It is meant to hold back the stuff you don’t want and let through the stuff that makes the coffee worth drinking. But these strainers are for more than just hot beverages. Make sure you get new oil and air filters for the next round of maintenance on your car. Furnaces and air conditioners need them too. Don’t forget the water filter. They collect and hold back destructive and unhealthy particles from moving through and destroying your engine and your health. In addition, there is the metaphorical filter we all appreciate when people use it on their mouths. Most agree that not everything that comes through the mind should be spoken. A little self control, maybe?

The concept of filtering can be applied to so many things. But the results are not always positive. For various reasons, many of us also apply filters to our minds and beliefs that keep us from seeing, hearing, and experiencing life-giving ideas and truth. The good stuff can get filtered out too.

Filtering My Mind

The human mind appears to have natural filters. It can selectively process sensory inputs, acting as a gatekeeper. This allows me to focus on the relevant details around me while filtering out distracting information and sensory data. If I take in every detail around me while driving my car, I will find it difficult, if not impossible, to get anywhere. I have this ability to focus on the goal of driving and ignore the color of every leaf, the flight patterns of every bird, the repairs needed for every building along the way. Of course, some people struggle with distractions keeping them from doing their given task well, whether that be driving, studying, or paying attention to a conversation. For them, we might say they need to learn to focus better or develop more effective filters.

But again, not all filters are helpful. Filters for the mind seem to develop according to our past experiences, habits we develop, and priorities we establish, many which are useful. They also can lead to skewed perceptions that keep us from seeing or accepting that which is good for us. Some individuals have developed mind filtering that prevents them from seeing, let alone embracing, what is positive. Thus they are prone to perceive, hear, and interpret their experiences through worse-case scenarios and dark assumptions. The world becomes primarily a negative, anxiety-inducing experience. And it is difficult to appreciate or embrace that which is positive or hopeful around them.

They Can Keep the Good Stuff Out Too

Some common detrimental filters I have seen are fear, bitterness, and shame. While I’m sure there are many more, these three have a way of dominating thoughts and perspectives that shrink a person’s world so that almost nothing else is left to give guidance. The power of such filters is that the negative things that are allowed through feel as if they are the only things that are true.

A person’s fears, rather than seeing opportunities, easily interpret danger in almost everything around. A person’s bitterness, rather than finding reasons to let go and release the inevitable disappointments in people, expects and holds on to the worst in every interaction. A person’s shame, rather than seeing a place of belonging, translates everything that is done or said as a confirmation that there is something wrong with him or her and that it will never really change.

The wrong filter can be bad.

The Filter of Filters

As a follower of Jesus, I have come to see that if I am willing to receive it, He provides a new filter. It is Himself. Yes. All of life and its varied experiences look and sound different, when viewed and experienced through Him in faith. And when I live according to what the Divine Filter allows and reject all that this Divine Filter sifts out, I am changed – for the better.

Throughout so much of the holy scriptures, we are told what is ours IN Christ Jesus. In the same way, we are told all that has been done for us THROUGH Him. He is the one who will sift the fears, dissolve the bitterness, and cover the shame. It is possible because through faith we are put IN Jesus and are given the right to receive and hope in all that is His. And we are told it is ours THROUGH the simplicity of trusting Him.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us IN Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us IN him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” (Ephesians 1:3-4 ESV).

“For by grace you have been saved THROUGH faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8 ESV).

I want Jesus to be my filter.

It is now part of my faith journey to let Him replace all the other filters I have taken on because of past experiences and choices. Through Jesus, I can see everything differently: my needs, my relationships, my work, my interaction with the world. Everything takes on a new significance when He is allowed to filter my perceptions through His truth.

Just like that cup of coffee, the appropriate life filter can make everything taste better.

Response:

• How are my filters working? With my mouth? With my thoughts? What needs to be different?
• What negative filters are active in my beliefs and attitudes? How might fear, bitterness, and shame be filtering out a better life that God has for me?
• Jesus, by faith I want to live IN you and experience the world around me THROUGH you!