Air purifier

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to thy word. – Psalm 119:9 (RSV)

After my classroom was moved to the second floor of the front of the school building—right along the main street of town, a major artery for heavy truck traffic—I developed puzzling symptoms that came and went. Fatigue. Congestion. Watery eyes. Dry throat. Itchy, red spots on my skin. Mild numbness in my left arm. Difficulty concentrating. Occasional dizziness. Feeling as though I had a mild case of the flu.

Since no one else at school complained about the symptoms I was experiencing, I blamed them on getting older. By the end of that school year, though, I felt just awful. I attributed it to burnout and determined to spend the summer regaining my health. I went on a three-day, blood-purifying juice fast. I bought a water purifier for drinking water and a filter for the water system. I began to feel better. I had energy. I slept well. I could think again. All those baffling symptoms disappeared.
   
Then August came. The difference in my health within a week after I returned to school was abrupt and left no room for doubt. I suspected the black, soot-like dust that blanketed everything in my classroom—residue from the exhausts of trucks with diesel engines that changed gears right in front of the windows of my classroom. I’d been breathing that stuff for seven hours a day, five days a week, for three years.    The administration and I got busy. We sealed up every place where we suspected exhaust fumes could get in. A bigger, more efficient air purifier was purchased to complement the smaller one I’d been using. I replaced the air filter in the small air purifier, which was caked with soot. My symptoms abated.

Purity is hard to come by these days. Despite controls that limit the pollutants and environmental toxins that are byproducts of progress, the air we breathe and the water we drink are not as pure as they were in pre-industry times. That’s why bottled water and air and water purifiers have become so popular.

Spiritual purity is hard to come by, too. Just living in this sin-polluted world leaves a residue of sin-soot on us all. How do we attain and maintain the spiritual purity God requires?

By using the filter of God’s Word. We attain spiritual purity, the removal of all the sin dirt we’ve accumulated over the years, by asking Jesus, the Son of God, to be our Savior and accepting His death on Calvary’s cross for what it was: punishment for our sins: “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). 

We maintain spiritual purity by reading, meditating on and obeying God’s Word, which brings revival, wisdom, joy and enlightenment (Psalm 19:7-8).

In an unstable, imperfect, sin-polluted world, God’s Word is the only filter that works.
       
Father, help me to recognize when sin is polluting and poisoning my soul. Help me to deal with it before its debilitating effects ruin my life. Amen.
     

Special-Tea: Read Psalm 19:7-10

NOTE: This occurred several years ago. I've since resigned from teaching to write full time.

What seems right . . .

. . . keep oneself from being polluted by the world. – James 1:27 (NIV)

For years I’ve waged a continuing war against hypothyroidism, weight gain, insomnia and fatigue. I’ve spent endless hours researching, especially the thyroid. Last fall I ordered a vitamin-mineral supplement especially formulated to support the thyroid gland. I worked on weight loss, avoiding sugar and white flour. I couldn’t give up my tea, though. I like it sweet—two packets of artificial sweetener per cup, two to three cups a day. Since sucralose was touted to be made from sugar, I figured it was better for me than the other kinds. It was the right thing to do. So I thought.

I did everything I could to get and stay healthy, even buying antibacterial hand soap and dishwashing liquid.

In March, I stopped taking the vitamin-mineral powder. Over-the-counter vitamins especially formulated for women my age (hint: the name includes the word “silver”) were less expensive, although the amount of the vitamins and minerals were different. By the end of June, the fatigue had returned with a vengeance. I blamed it on insomnia and my underachieving thyroid. “What I wouldn’t give to be able to sleep straight through the night,” I repeatedly muttered to myself.

Then one day while shopping, the headlines on the front page of a magazine caught my eye: “Dr. Oz’s Thyroid Cure.” I usually don’t allow myself to be lured by headlines at the checkout, but I was exhausted. And desperate. So I bought it. “Tell me something I don’t know,” I mumbled as I opened to page 36 and started reading. He did.

According to Dr. Oz, triclosan, a chemical used as an antibacterial agent in hand soaps and dish detergents, interferes with thyroid function. How many times a day do I wash my hands with antibacterial soap? And wash dishes with an antibacterial dishwashing liquid? And here I thought I was doing the right thing.

Not one to accept only one source, I got online and researched “triclosan” and found plenty of evidence to support Dr. Oz’s claim. What else interferes with thyroid function? I wondered. I googled “sucralose” + “effects”—and read that people have complained about weight gain, insomnia, brain fog and fatigue. As I read labels, I was surprised at how many products contain sucralose. I was getting a lot more of it than from the packets I stirred in my tea and sprinkled over my cereal.

Using calorieless sweeteners and antibacterial soaps seemed the right thing to do for my health and well-being, but, over time, the negative effects began to manifest themselves. I blamed them on everything but the true sources—which I continued to use.

Isn’t that just like sin? It sneaks into your life looking like something good, promising good things. As it wreaks its havoc, we blame everything else but the true source. “It can’t be wrong when it feels so right,” we say, quoting a popular song. Only when we acknowledge sin as sin can we get back on the road of spiritual health again.
     
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Dear God, open my eyes to the sin in my life. Give me the courage to confess it and the strength to banish it. Amen.

Special-Tea: Genesis 3, James 1:19-27