Filters

I was recently reminiscing with our son, Dan, about a summer job from a few years back.  When he was in college, he worked at a State Park campground. One of the available, on-site, family-friendly activities in the park is “gem mining.” It was Dan’s daily responsibility to stock a zigzagging series of water troughs with pebbles, stones, rocks, and “gems.” Using rented gold prospecting equipment, kids would dip their screens into the troughs, pull them up, let the water drip out, and look for shiny things left in the pans. Sifted, filtered, treasures. Eureka!

Isn’t that a wonderful task? To seed the imaginations and feed the dreams of everyone who comes expecting an afternoon of winsome adventure? To allow for the silt of the ordinary to escape down the drain while allowing for the captivating to be captured?

As I poured myself a cup of coffee this morning, I noticed that the paper filter had slipped a bit, and some of the grounds had dripped directly into the carafe along with the water. It made for a slightly chewy beverage, and I made a mental note to be more diligent the next time I brewed a pot.

In “gem mining,” you filter out what is valuable and let what is less valuable wash through. In coffee making, you filter out the dregs to let the more valuable liquid wash through. In either case, the filter is important to the outcome. Without a filter, the desirable stuff is lost, the undesirable stuff is retained, and nobody wants that.

These days, we give considerable consideration to filtering out what is most worrisome and dangerous. Masks and face shields and acrylic barriers separate humanity, we hope, from disease.  But other concerns vex us as well—especially the societal animosity that seems almost as aerosolized as the virus that plagues us. Some days I wish we could trap all the toxins kicked up by cultural conflicts in an enormous HEPA Cyclonic Vacuum and sweep away all the discord.

Unfortunately, that’s not an available technology, and so we’re going to have to use the filters that are already at our disposal, beginning with discernment. We have a say in sorts of things we expose our minds to—the tone, the quality, the spin, the content. We have a say in what will occupy the very center of our thoughts. When we concentrate and contemplate on God’s agenda, this is where we begin to filter out the sediment and the sludge. Whatever is deceptive, or trivial, or corrupt, or bogus, or tedious, or despicable—this is what runs out the bottom of the sieve and washes clean away. Left behind in the sifter are the valuables: all that is true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, and gracious. (Philippians 4: 8-9) Polish up these gems and hang onto them.

Panning for What Is Wondrous,

Pastor Chris

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Moravian Church Without Walls (MCWW)  will offer a virtual service open to all at  11:00 am ET on Sundays.  On July 19, we join Rev. John Jackman from  Trinity Moravian Church  in Winston-Salem, N.C. 

The webinar begins at 11:00 a.m.; click this link:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/310492867   to join the service.

Virtual Fellowship  will meet via Zoom at 10:15 a.m. Click on   https://zoom.us/j/91671628972  to connect.

Zoom Prayers  will meet at 6:30 p.m. Click on  https://zoom.us/j/91961743369  to join.