My Spam Filter

Today in my inbox, I can choose from the following: a sale on Rhine River cruises, participation in a class action settlement against Old Navy, a neighborhood reminder that recycling has been moved to Thursday (this week only), or signups for a Rotary volunteer event. Perhaps I want to give joy to the next generation by buying…something.

The blast of information is endless. School schedules. News summaries. Social invitations. Marketing offers that border on the creepy: We notice you recently bought a vacuum cleaner, so perhaps you want a puppy. We have a great selection of puppies, all guaranteed to provide more vacuuming opportunities!

Thank goodness for the spam filter that sorts most of my email into Important, Promotions, Flagged, Attachments, and Junk. The sort isn’t perfect, but it goes a long way toward daily productivity. Instead of wasting time considering maybe I do want a set of potholders that match the new dish towels (and then remembering that I have a drawer full of unused potholders), my spam filter helps me focus on the emails that matter.

Like most women, I need to work, keep house, take care of family, and pay bills. I want to be efficient so that I have time for things I enjoy, like Bible study, exercise, sending greeting cards, or having coffee with a friend. Every morning, I make my to-do list because I love checking things off. It feels so satisfying to see the number of action items decrease. I confess, some days I even add extra things that I got done, just for the joy of crossing them out!

But recently, as I checked off Bible one afternoon, I stopped. I realized if I really want to follow Jesus, he can’t be a four o’clock afterthought. Maybe I was getting a lot of “good things” done. But were they the right things? Were they essential? Were they eternal?

This year, I want to use my daily Scripture reading as a spam filter for life. Like most of us, I get requests to lots of things. All of them are good, worthwhile, and the tasks are well within my capacity. It makes me feel good to be productive. But are these tasks essential, important, interesting, or simply a way to avoid things I don’t enjoy? These are the questions I’m asking myself.

By running every request through a holy filter, I hope to focus on the essential. Will doing this build the Church? Make God visible? What won’t I get to do if I take that assignment? These are difficult questions. But if 2022 is going to be a year of thriving in a much-changed world, I need to sort out kingdom priorities and tackle them first. Jesus can’t be squeezed in between laundry and dinner.

“So, if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up and be alert to what is going on around Christ” (Col. 3:1, The Message).