I’ve been reading a book I have by Steve Backlund called Possessing Joy: A Secret to Strength & Longevity. In the book he talks about cleaning out our pipes.
I grew up in the midwest where, in some areas, the water would come out of the faucet rusty––even an orange tinted color. That’s because often the old pipes were rusty, and even if it was great water, it was being tainted by the pipes that it flowed through. By the time that good water flowed through those rusty pipes, it tasted terrible.
Hmm. Along that same line we might ask, “What flows out of me? And how clean are my pipes?”
If our lives are full of frustration, fear or hopelessness, what comes out of us will be tainted by those things. No matter how truthful or enlightening or wonderful our words are, what we speak is colored by our inner terrain and self-talk.
One of the ways to combat this is to ask God what he has to say about what is happening around us instead of listening to all the negative news that makes us discouraged and unhappy. We don’t always have a choice about what happens to us or around us, and right now some of those things are pretty discouraging. But we do have a choice in how we filter them.
In these days we are called upon to sort out fact from fiction, truth from speculation, and speak hope and life into a very dark place.
And since we are a pipeline for the hope of the living God, I would recommend we keep our spiritual pipes clean and flowing so that what comes out of us will be sweet for others to drink.
Greg
I’ve been reading a book I have by Steve Backlund called Possessing Joy: A Secret to Strength & Longevity. In the book he talks about cleaning out our pipes.
I grew up in the midwest where, in some areas, the water would come out of the faucet rusty––even an orange tinted color. That’s because often the old pipes were rusty, and even if it was great water, it was being tainted by the pipes that it flowed through. By the time that good water flowed through those rusty pipes, it tasted terrible.
Hmm. Along that same line we might ask, “What flows out of me? And how clean are my pipes?”
If our lives are full of frustration, fear or hopelessness, what comes out of us will be tainted by those things. No matter how truthful or enlightening or wonderful our words are, what we speak is colored by our inner terrain and self-talk.
One of the ways to combat this is to ask God what he has to say about what is happening around us instead of listening to all the negative news that makes us discouraged and unhappy. We don’t always have a choice about what happens to us or around us, and right now some of those things are pretty discouraging. But we do have a choice in how we filter them.
In these days we are called upon to sort out fact from fiction, truth from speculation, and speak hope and life into a very dark place.
And since we are a pipeline for the hope of the living God, I would recommend we keep our spiritual pipes clean and flowing so that what comes out of us will be sweet for others to drink.
Greg
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