Instead of going to bed like my body told me to, I decided to read and think. Sometimes I think the best thoughts come at night. Even better when you can’t sleep, laying awake in bed, with seemingly no one but the walls to listen to you. Then thinking led me into creating a new blog, one for this new chapter of my life (okay, so I’m four months late). But what’s funny was that while creating this, I ran into a blog I created two years ago. Two years ago, I was in a similar mindset of starting anew. Two years ago, I posted daily, commenting either on my daily Bible studies or on the Purpose Driven book I kept trying to finish. It throws me back a little to read some of it. Sometimes I think I am less wiser as years go on.
My old new blog was named 365-24-7 so maybe this is 365-24-7: Take Two. It’ll be in addition to my livejournal, I think. More places I can think out loud on. Or maybe not. Maybe it’s time to move on. Guess we’ll see.
The other day at work, a coworker mentioned the “broken glass” phenomenon or theory, or something mystical. I had never heard of this phrase before and made him explain. It was in reference to a picture taken of a coworker and posted on a wall. Someone had drawn angry eyebrows on it, playfully. According to the “broken glass” phenomenon, once the glass is cracked, it doesn’t matter anymore. It will keep breaking. In this case, someone totally different had decided to draw an evil curly mustache. Eventually, devil horns made its way onto the picture. In no way does this represent the guy in the picture well, but it was simply a tasteful addition of funny marks.
But all week I’ve been thinking about this “broken glass.”
Before my coworker had made the analogy with the devil-man picture, I responded to his theory with, “So? You can always stop breaking the glass, right?” But he said, “Sure, but it’s already broken.” I think this mashed a bad chord in my heart because I guess we could all look at the story of life on earth through this “broken glass.” God pulled out this nice shiny sheet of glass and we threw a little pebble at it. If you know anything at all about windshields and rock chips, it’s that one teeny tiny pebble at just the right angle will mar your windshield perfectly. It’s like we threw the pebble and as time went on, instead of repairing the rock chip, we just let weather and conditions further the fracture. And I wonder at what point we are at now. How much stress can our broken glass take before it shatters into one big fat mess?
But then I remembered my honest little question that escaped from my mouth… “You can always stop breaking the glass, right?” I mean, what kind of crazy theory is that — That one little mark would spiral down into chaos? Is there a point of salvaging what we have? Is there a point we can stop and say, that’s enough? As a human often driven by sin, am I capable of stopping this? Or is this where a savior steps in? Could salvation be the point where Christ not only repairs the chips, but completely restores your windshield like new without replacing it? AND adds a lifetime of protection?
Sign me up for that warranty, right?
Anyway. As much of a cynic as I used to be, the optimist in me doesn’t so much like the idea of the “broken glass” phenomenon. I don’t think once broken, always broken. But that’s what I think.
