Spiritual Dialysis

There has been a lot of discussion in my house around the topic of dialysis. My mother was on dialysis during the time she was sick and in the hospital. Her body recovered from the illness she had in her body and her kidneys began functioning again to a certain extent. The idea of her having to go back on dialysis has always been a part of prognosis. Not so much because she is still sick but because the damage her kidneys sustained while she was sick was possibly too great for her kidneys to make a complete recovery (so the doctors say—but we stand in faith on what the Word of God says). The topic of dialysis is also around me because my best friend’s mother has made the choice to go on dialysis. This has been a long and embattled process. Her kidneys have not functioned well for a long time on their own; due to this failure she will need dialysis to help remove the toxins from her body. Essentially when your kidneys do not function properly the toxins that we ingest and that the body creates just accumulate in the body instead of being filtered out of the blood. Without functioning kidneys, the body simply poisons itself slowly until it can no longer function properly.

Dialysis is the process of circumventing the kidneys and artificially filtering and cleansing the blood. Through this process the blood is cleansed and returned to the body. Once the blood is cleaned and it can be returned to the body so it can function normally and wholly. This process of cleansing and the removing of impurities from the sustainer of life is not limited to the physical body—it is also a process that we must undergo on a spiritual level. This spiritual dialysis starts when we make the decision to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and continues as we actively become disciples of His teaching.

It would be too easy to look at the two types of dialysis (hemodialysis-blood and peritoneal-water) and compare them on a spiritual level to biblical principals of cleansing. Instead I want to look at dialysis through more of a disciple’s eye. When we decide to become disciples of Christ we decide to adopt a lifestyle that is not our own. It is a lifestyle that is dedicated to living according to the teachings of Christ and putting all things we consider to be ourselves to death as often as we need to throughout the day to be successful in that endeavor. Much like the person undergoing dialysis we, as disciples need to learn to circumvent the things in our life that haven’t been working and are slowly poisoning us. For many of us these are the things that, again as disciples, we are going to be called to leave behind on our discipleship walk. These could be the things that are nearest and dearest to our hearts (like some of the foods renal patients are required to give up for life’s sake) but that are slowly poisoning us and are keeping us from moving in the full potential that God has for our lives.

The filter that we as disciples of Christ need to use for spiritual dialysis is the Holy Spirit and the word of god. If the things in our lives aren’t congruent with the teachings of Christ or don’t support what the holy spirit is trying to do in our lives then it is time to filter it out of our lives to get spiritually healthy again. I’ve talked to several dialysis patients. None of them have said that they enjoy the process. None of them have said that it feels good. They all have said they know they need to go through it to live. We need to go through the spiritual kind to live as disciple as well.