Dirty Dirty Dirty- It Was SO Dirty

We have a pool in our backyard. Its a nice above ground 15 footer from Walmart. We've had it for 3 years now. I have to tell you, in this 80 degree weather we're having here in the northwest, its a Godsend to have it. We don't have any AC in our house, so having that pool to jump in at the end of the day makes for a real nice cool down.

The pool came with a pump that circulates the water to help keep it clean. The pump is supposed to circulate 1000 gallons an hour, and with a 4000 gallon pool, means it should circulate the whole pool in four hours.

Well, our pump wasn't working right. We put in a new filter and this thing just wasn't working. It was real loud, when usually its quiet, I would clean the filter and it wouldn't help, it just wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. Our water was cloudy, there was gunk in the water. It was just all around a dirty pool. I wanted to give up on the pool for the year. I don't like swimming in dirty water.

I gave in and bought a new pump this week. I got it in the mail yesterday and it works like a charm. It took Crystal and I all of about 4 mins to swap it out, and now we've got a sweet filtration pump that is keeping our water sparkling clean.

It made me think about our spiritual condition as people. I think sometimes we try to make something work for us longer than it is intended to do so, or we are using the wrong thing altogether.

The human condition is such that we like to be in charge and try to 'clean up' ourselves or 'filter' the junk out of our lives. As a Christian, I believe that's the work of the Holy Spirit, to 'clean up' and 'filter' the stuff out of our lives that isn't supposed to be there, that we don't need.

But here's the kicker- we have to allow the Holy Spirit to do it. We can try to do it on our own (old filtration pump) or give in and let the Holy Spirit do it (new filtration pump). In the process, when the Holy Spirit does it, its cleaner, faster, better and easier.

Blessings!
matt