What’s your filter?  Everyone has a filter, it’s whatever worldview, orthodoxy, or understanding you use to strain, sort, and categorize what goes through your senses (hear, see, smell, touch, taste). These filters can be good and they can be harmful.  The definition of the verb filter is the act of slowly or partially obstructing the passage (you could insert message).  This isn’t all bad.  Our filters cause every message that we encounter to pass or slip through slowly, as through an obstruction. This allows us to decide if the information is worthy.

 Now you may be thinking, “This is not news!”  Except what if our filters are congested? 

 When we bought our house, we also bought a new refrigerator.  If worked wonderfully.  Except after two years, when friends came over, the water pressure slowly decreased in the door.  I would just tell them to push the button to reset the filter.  But they still complained.  Then two years ago my father was visiting and asked when the last time I change the filter?  I responded that I didn’t know we needed to change the filter.  After reading the owners manual we learned it should be changed every six months.  Our filter was two and half years old – gross.  I actually need to change our filter now.

 So how do we change our human filters?  That is much harder and there is no expiration date.  But it’s important to assess and sometimes reset our filters.  Here are some ways I continually assess and reset my filter to make sure I’m responding to my world candidly. 

• Read books.  Find books about subjects your comfortable with and read a different point of view. A Christian should read a Atheist’s argument.
• Listen to different people talk about their view of world issues and dialog.  The secret here is to listen, not convert them.  Listening is much more powerful.
• Try new things.  I remember in middle school going to a Bat Mitzvah.  I’m not Jewish but the experience left a lasting impression of the origins of my own faith.
• Visit other countries and get involved.  The world is much smaller due to the internet and you have no excuse for never leaving home.  I know a woman who was born, educated, and raised her children in Texas — until recently she had never left the state.  At age 50 she left Texas for the first time to visit her daughter in LA.
• Open your life to people not like you.  I think about Jesus often when it comes to this action.  He was completely God and Man – no one was like him – but he opened himself to everyone who would have him.  It’s sort of living life on purpose. 

The real message here is be aware of your filters.  We need to reset these filters to allow us to interact with the world more truthfully.  The best way to do this is to leave your box, bubble, or whatever is keeping your from growing.