Windows

A while back, Nancy asked me to wash the windows. When I asked why, she said, “Because they’re filthy!” I hadn't noticed. I thought it was darker in the room because she had installed some tenting or something.

Once I started cleaning them, I was shocked to find out that they were pretty dirty. The dirt had accumulated so slowly, I hadn't noticed. And because I looked through them, and not at them, I never saw it.

I think the same is true of us as well. We walk through life with all kinds of things coming at us. Images, the news, programs on TV, work, stress, and conflict all come and bump up against our filters. Some of it sticks.

And because we never really look at our filters we don’t see how dirty they are. We don’t take the time to sit down and inspect the lens we look through. As a result it gets clogged up and dirty. Then our perspective begins to get skewed.

From time to time, we need to check our filters. We need to ask ourselves, how am I looking at this person? Am I seeing him or her through jaded, sarcastic, apathetic eyes? Or am I seeing a person through the eyes of Christ; a person who needs to be loved, shown grace and helped?  

Life can heap a bunch of slop onto our filters. Sometimes we need someone to point it out when they’re dirty. But if we allow him, Christ is happy to help us wash them clean.