I was pondering how long it had been that I had owned our previous lawn mower as I cut the grass/weeds the other day. To the best of my recollection, I guess that mower had been through about twenty-five seasons with me. When we first bought it, we lived in the Midwest where the lawns are flat, the trees are virtually non-existent and the size of the yards we had was not very big. Nonetheless, two and half decades of cutting lawns, getting occasional tune-ups, oil changes and blade sharpening was still a good bit of history to be shared. The engine was smallish, only about three horse power, but eventually the body and the wheels gave out before the engine did. I “traded it in” a couple of years ago for a new one…same manufacturer but this time the engine is six and half horse power! Like the previous one, it’s not self-propelled, so my heart and legs still do most of the work. But unlike our previous terrains, our current “lawn” (To refer to the green patch we have around our house as grass and thus a lawn is being very generous—weeds overpopulate any grasses that venture there!) is rough, uneven, filled with rocks, roots, ridges, banks and other horizontal and perpendicular challenges. Come to think of it, my old lawn mower probably just surrendered after a couple of seasons of these new nemeses. In any event, this new mower is stronger, heavier and braver than my last. I feel like I unleash a lean, mean grass-cutting machine each time I fire it up. There are no limbs, small branches, protruding roots or rocks that it won’t at least take on…most of which I discover after I go over them. But last year the “machine” started using more and more gas with less and less power. The long and the short of it was it needed a new or clean air filter. Once that was addressed we were back to scaring any lawn related obstacles in our path. Simple matter really, even combustible engines need to “breathe.” It made me ponder something else in my life: how many times have I fore-shortened the ability of the Holy Spirit to do His work in my life because He couldn’t “breathe?” If the spiritual filter in my life is not clean—He is quenched; He is prevented from breathing new life into me. I John 1:9 exists for a very good reason—daily cleansing to allow Holy Spirit breathing.