Broken Windows

When Rudy Giuliani was Mayor of NYC he requested that when a building was discovered to have a broken window that the broken window be replaced immediately because if it wasn’t, within a couple of months most of the other windows in the building would be busted-out as well, leaving the building looking abandoned.

Apparently folks are more apt to destroy what appears to be already on a path of being uncared for and valueless.

People are a lot like buildings.

It seems that many people who have had a window or two broken out of their lives are often the ones who are pelted with stones leaving the remainder of their windows to be shattered. I guess in ways all of us have a cracked window or two.

Think of the people you know with shattered windows. I am reminded of a boy in my elementary who was picked-on by another kid. For whatever reason he hated this boy and everyone knew it. He demonized him and publicly shattered a window in his life. It wasn’t long afterwards that other students began to throw stones at his windows. Throughout our elementary years this particular boy, for no reason other than having a window cracked through the senseless and unkind words and actions of another person, was pelted with stones on a daily basis. If the eyes are truly the window of the soul, it was easy to look in his eyes and see the brokenness.

It only takes one person to start the cycle of destruction, and before long the entire building is in shambles. We take something beautiful and in our inner-ugliness attempt to break it so that it will also be ugly, just like we feel. And once we perceive it to be ugly we justify destroying it. Some feel justified throwing rocks at whatever they find valueless and ugly.

God doesn’t throw rocks.

Jesus knew what the damage of one stone could do to a person. Before long the entire crowd joins in. There’s the old saying, “Hurt people, hurt people.” Perhaps you could say, “Broken people break people.”

Adults are equally as guilty of breaking windows in the lives of others—especially those who already have a window or two busted-out. We don’t like ugly, dilapidated-looking “buildings” so we avoid those with broken windows like we do the run-down parts of town or we help break-out the remaining windows.

Jesus asks us to follow him to the discarded, forgotten, neglected and forsaken parts of town where the "buildings’" windows are broken; the "buildings" are abandoned and left to rot by society. When we dare to look into the windows of another’s soul-- we’ll find God waiting for us to bring about restoration and renewal.