In the March 1982 issue of Atlantic Magazine authors James Q. Wilson and George L Kelling introduce what they called the “Broken Windows” theory of crime fighting. Their theory was that if a city were to take seriously the enforcement of normally minor infractions such as aggressive panhandling, graffiti, and turnstile jumping that there would be a reduction in overall crime, including major felonies. Rudolph Giuliani used this theory for crime fighting to clean up New York City and greatly reduce the crime there.
In our upcoming sermon series we are going to be talking about the things in our life than can become broken if they are grounded in the person of Jesus Christ. If the “broken window” theory holds true for crime then it should hold true for our lives. I see this parallel in that we often let the “small things” in our life unravel which leading to the unravelling of much larger things. Often those things involve some of the issues that we will be touching on in this series: relationships, money, and sexual issues.
Broken lives often begin as broken windows! What is breaking down in your life that might seem small but if left unchecked could lead to greater problems later?
