With all the wildfire smoke in the air I look across my backyard and everything is a haze of smoke. I can’t see the blue sky … only a haze of smoke. I can’t see the Cascade Mountains in the distance … only a haze of smoke hanging heavy in the air.
To be honest I don’t really know what I’m breathing. All I know is that I’m not feeling altogether “normal.” The back of my throat burns, my chest is heavy, my nose is runny, my brain is “foggy,” and I’m feeling rather lethargic.
There are toxins in the air. I can’t see them, but I can feel the impact they are having on my physical health.
However, I can’t just hibernate inside. I’ve got things I need to do. Life keeps moving and hubby and I need to be out and about doing the things God has given us to do.
So I’m out in the garden this morning picking green beans when my son sends me a text, with this list he had just researched of the breakdown of the toxins in our air at the moment …
Fascinating!
I’m not a chemistry person, but that’s still really interesting. So that’s what I’m breathing which is making me feel so poorly at the moment.
As I ponder the toxin breakdown list, I can’t help but think how this exact same thing is what is going on in the world spiritually. This world we live in is polluted with sin. The emotional and mental “air” we are breathing each day is filled with “toxins.” We can’t see these “toxins” any more than I can see the Carbon Monoxide and Nitrogen Oxides in the air I’m currently breathing.
To be honest, we don’t really know what’s in the “air” our souls are “breathing.” All we know is that we aren’t feeling altogether “normal.”
Our soul “burns” (like the back of my throat burning) when we see people flagrantly shoplift and steal. Our soul is heavy (like my chest is heavy) when we see the anger, malice, and hatred all over our social media newsfeeds. Our mind feels “foggy” and our soul feels “lethargic.” (just like my brain is currently “foggy” and I currently feel rather lethargic)
Our souls are “breathing” “toxins.” We can’t see them, but we can feel the impact they are having on our mental health, our emotional health, our spiritual health.
First off … we’ve got to know what the spiritual “toxins” are in the “air” we are breathing. What are they? It helps to know what we are spiritually “breathing.”
What!?! We’re “breathing” all of that?? Every day??
This is the “air” our souls are living in and “breathing”?!?
No wonder we are feeling unwell spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
There are a lot of terrible “toxins” in the “air” our souls are breathing!
But we can’t just hibernate in a “holy bubble” … “breathing the air of heaven.” God has put us in this world for a reason. We have a job to do. And it’s not to seclude ourselves in a “holy bubble” simply “breathing the air of heaven.”
What’s mind blowing is that Jesus Christ (who is God himself) came down from heaven to live in this polluted world. Jesus lived and “breathed” the “toxins” we are “breathing.” And yet Jesus was not polluted by the “toxins.”
With Jesus as our great example, we know that we too can live in this world – even though we are “breathing toxins” – without being polluted by the “toxins.”
How??
How do we do this??
First off – we’ve got to know what the “toxins” are. We’ve already looked at some in the chart above. (see: Ephesians 4:22-31; Mark 7:21-22; Galatians 5:19-21)
Second – we must remove ourselves from living permanently in the “toxins.” I am not currently living outside in the polluted smoky air. I do not have a tent set up in my backyard and I am not camping out and living in the smoke. No. I am living in a house where I can shut the windows and keep the smoke out.
So too, this is what we must do spiritually. We must stop “living permanently” in the “toxins” … and we must move to “living” in the “house of salvation” which Jesus has provided for us.
“With regard to your former way of life you must put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; be made new in the attitude of your minds; and put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” – Ephesians 4:22-24
Thirdly – we must have a good “air filtration system.” The Holy Spirit is our “air filtration system.” The Holy Spirit will “filter out” the sinful “toxins” and make the “air” we are “breathing” pure and clean.
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” – Galatians 5:16
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus [aka: are in the “house of salvation” provided by Jesus Christ] have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” – Galatians 5:24-25
What does “filtered air” for our soul look like?? As the Holy Spirit “filters” out the “toxins” and makes the “air” we are “breathing” pure and clean, what does this look like??
“The [filtered air] of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” – Galatians 5:22
And so we live in a world hazy with pollutants and spiritual “toxins.” But we’ve got a refuge – an escape – from the “toxins.”
“God is our refuge and strength.” – Psalm 46:1
“In you, O LORD, I have taken refuge.” – Psalm 71:1
“Be my … refuge, to which I can always go.” – Psalm 71:3
And not only that … as we go about the tasks God has given us to do each day, living in this world hazy with pollutants and spiritual “toxins” we have “filtered air” from the Holy Spirit going with us each step of the way.
Jesus, praying to God the Father (on our behalf) said: “My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. … Sanctify them by the truth; you word is truth. … As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.” – John 17:15-18
Jesus speaking: “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.” – John 16:13
We live in this world … hazy with pollutants and spiritual “toxins.” But we know what those “toxins” are. We have a “house of refuge” / a “house of salvation” provided for us by Jesus Christ. And we have “filtered clean pure air” from the Holy Spirit.
So that we can be bold to do what God has put is here to do … which is: “Go and make disciples.” – Matthew 28:19.
