CLOGGED

Sometimes life's mundane tasks hold a spiritual life lesson. This time it came via my clothes dryer, which simply wouldn't dry any more! Even with an hour of “tumbling,” clothes were still damp and sour-smelling. The “sour” didn't make sense. I'd limped by, hanging clothes outside when the weather was warmer. But winter changed the rules!

Repair or buy new? It was 20 years old. Was calling a repairman—facing probably a third or half the cost of a new dryer—worth it? Then one gracious repairman offered some free “over-the-counter” advice. He said to use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of air coming out the dryer's back vent. If it was 145 degrees, the problem wasn't the dryer's ability to heat. It may be the exhaust vents to the outside. Our dryer passed the “meat thermometer” test so (groan) it had to be the vent. My husband called a company that cleans vents, but their estimate wasn't friendly to our budget. The “ugh” alternative: doing it ourselves.

After pulling a few lint blobs out of the “exhaust elbow” between the dryer and the floor, we faced Mount Everest, or maybe it was a Carlsbad Cavern. Our dryer vent traveled about twelve feet under the house to the outside. Hero Husband geared up, crawled under the house in all its filth (including a dead rat), pulled off the vent tubes and passed them out to me. He rigged up a long pole with rags on the end for me to help him ream the tubes out. We ended up pushing out more than a gallon of filthy lint. No wonder lint clogs are considered a fire danger! I tried the dryer with a fresh load of wet laundry. Back on the job!

As we progressed through this “ugh” job amidst a pandemic, I make a connection to the apostle Peter's advice on tough times and living among people with negative dispositions. “Rid yourselves,” Peter wrote, “of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander, of every kind” (1 Peter 2:1). In the original Greek, the word translated “rid” means to “cast away,” like garbage. The Message paraphrase of Eugene Peterson sharpens the image with its version of saying, “So clean house! Make a clean sweep” of these negative behaviors. Yes, like reaming out lint-clogged dryer vents.

Most folks can recall encounters with people whose hearts are clogged with malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander. And if we're honest with ourselves, those sins are ones we need to guard against rooting in ourselves. Instead of old rags on a long pole, we need the purging ministry of the Holy Spirit. He specializes in the warning signs that we may be getting “clogged” with pride, prejudice, and other negatives of the “self-life.”

=========

Your trivia of the day, answering “Who invented the clothes dryer?” In 1799, a Frenchman invented what he called a “ventilator,” a hole-pierced metal drum holding clothes and which was rolled over an open fire. (Yes, smoked clothes!) In 1892, another man invented a dryer that used heat from the stove. Then in 1935 a man came up with an oil-heated drum, then later patented both an electric and gas version. The electric dryer came out in the 1950s but at $230 each (equivalent to $2,000 in today's money) few could afford it.

CLOGGED

I had an “oh-oh” moment while browsing a handyman magazine. (Yes, they’re traditionally men’s magazines, but I really like their humor page where readers confess their major home project goofs.) The “oh-oh” moment came with an article on dryer vent fires from vinyl exhaust tubes under the house.  Yes, we were in trouble. A few weeks ago that fix-it job got marked off our handyman list with a new metal tube under the house to the foundation vent.  I couldn’t believe the lint buildup in the old vinyl tube, a fire waiting to happen. Unlike cars, houses don’t have “need attention” lights to blink urgent needs.

When I saw that buildup (the crazy way my brain sometimes works) I thought of a verse memorized a long time ago:

So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this [referring to the new heaven and new earth, vv. 11-13) make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. (2 Peter 3:14)

What a goal: “spotless, blameless, and at peace with him [God].” I thought of people who wound others with lies and anger, then later excuse their wrongdoing by saying something like,  “Sorry, but I was having a bad day.” They give no hint of a contrite or repentant heart that would try to change that behavior. When I read this passage, I pause at the phrase “make every effort.”  In the original Greek, it’s spoudazo, meaning  “to hasten to do a thing, to exert oneself, endeavor, give diligence.” I think we can see those attributes in athletic events. There’s an honest and diligent effort to do better.

So where does the old dryer vent tube come in? I think it’s this: that our spiritual walks as immature or disobedient Christians let a lot of these sins pile up, blocking a clear and unsullied witness.  It’s sad, for example, when it might be said of someone, “He says he’s a Christian, but what a grouchy disposition.”  Or, “I see them in church, but their life choices sure don’t match up with what the Bible teaches.”

For clogged plastic vent pipes, there’s only one solution: complete replacement, preferably with a metal pipe without accordion ridges that would trap the lint. In the spiritual realm, that’s the counterpart of the “new birth”:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).