After the family developed colds last week, I realized I needed to check our A/C filter, since our maintenance crew only does so only after being asked and not once every two months like I was told. But I digress…

What I found was a dark gray air filter where a white one previously existed. We’d been ingesting impurities unnecessarily because I’d waited too long to perform a simple maintenance task. Take a look:

holy-filter

The picture of these filters is not unlike our personal holiness. We start out clean, eager, devout to our God. We do out best to catch everything before it impacts our souls.

But eventually there’s a build-up. Eventually the clear lines we’ve draw of what we will and won’t do begin to be come…dusty. They’re moving and shifting. Each little particle/sin seems harmless, but when you’re able to step back and see the cumulative effect of each tiny, little, “insignificant” particle/sin you’ll see just how far you’ve drifted, how dirty your filter really has become.

We must take time to step back. We must intentionally re-orient our filters from time to time. We must maintain them with regular and intrusive accountability. Otherwise we’ll find ourselves not only covered in sin, but spreading it as well.

How’s your filter?

PS- Here’s a message from Ed Stetzer at the Innovate Church conference entitiled “The Case for Personal Holiness.” Fantastic message along these lines.