Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Broken Windows

About 3 times a year I get to write an article for our local rag (BOP TIMES) which appears on the Church page of the paper. Thankfully I have Andrew who is a fantastic editor to cast his eye over my work and make the article much more interesting. Here is my what was published two weeks ago


It’s the soccer world cup final, the game has gone into extra time, and now it’s come down to a penalty shoot-out. Argentina leads Italy 3-2, and the expectations of the crowd and the hopes of the team rest on the shoulders of 9 year old from New Zealand. I take a deep breath and run in for the decisive shot.

Smash! The crowd instantly disappears, their cheering suddenly replaced by the frightened chirps of a few alarmed starlings. Guilt and fear rush over me as I look at the shards of glass on the ground and a giant hole where a pane of glass used to be.

Then a ray of hope flashes into my mind – technically the soccer ball and not me had broken the window. As my 9 year old brain processes the logic behind this excuse I realise that technicalities are best left unmentioned when dealing with angry parents.

In the absence of a good excuse, I decided it was time to take an extended visit to my friend’s house and high tailed it from the scene of the crime. Unfortunately you can’t stay at your friend’s place forever, and eventually I had to go home to face the music.

I’m now 28 and still break windows. Don’t misunderstand me – I’m not a vandal with a taste for shattering glass. But I still get it wrong, I still make mistakes. The Bible calls this “sin”, although that’s not an overly popular word in today’s culture. I have never had a problem accepting that I’m a sinner – I know I do stuff wrong, far worse than smashing windows: things like pride, selfishness, anger and more. The Bible teaches that our sin hurts God.

We are left feeling like a 9 year old child who has just broken a window. We’re scared of God’s reaction, so we make excuses to attribute blame and justify ourselves. Or we just run from Him, often even denying His existence.

But if we get brave enough to come home to God and face the music we will find something amazing about His nature. While our actions may hurt Him, similar to a parent who is upset over broken glass, He is also like a window repairman. His desire is not to punish us for the broken windows in our lives but rather to repair the damage – to heal and restore.

The window I broke when I was 9 has been fixed. The mistakes of our past can be restored if we face up to things with God. He knows where we’ve gone wrong and He can repair the damage.

Pastor Aaron More and Andrew Killick