Is There A Crack In Your Faith Windshield?

I had this crack in the windshield of my car.  I'd watched the crack grow for some weeks.  It started small, near the point of impact, and then it started spreading.  By the time I finally got my windshield replaced, the crack was over a foot long and inching upward every day it seemed.

The guy who fixed it told me that it started with a "small impact."  He said it was probably a rock that struck the windshield in just the right way in the right place.  "That's all it takes," he told me.  "Just a little impact like that, and it can grow."  

I got to thinking about the technicians words.  "Just a little impact like that, and it can grow."  I don't remember the exact rock that made the damage, but I almost immediately saw the results.  And if I hadn't replaced the whole thing, my windshield would have become very unsafe in a very short amount of time. 

I think that our faith is a bit like that windshield.  Like the windshield, our faith withstands a lot of impact from a lot of projectiles.  Most of them bounce harmlessly off, but occasionally something lands in just the right place, and the next thing you know our faith starts to show some cracks.  And without attention, those cracks can grow.  

Maybe you've had a lot of things landing on you lately.  You took a bunch of the hits in stride... money problems, relationship issues, illness, grief, to name a few.  But it was that one thing that landed on that one weak spot on your faith windshield and it cracked it.  And then the crack grew. 

You started to wonder, "What the heck are you up to, God?  Why am I going through this? I did everything right, I believed, I went to church and everything...What gives, God?"  

The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to some early Christians, who were having faith issues of their own.  "7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 'A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.'" (Galatians 5:7-9)

It doesn't take much self doubt... It only takes a little fear... It just requires a tiny bit of dread... A small amount of anxiety...  before you know it, and if left unheeded, there will be cracks all over your faith.  

So do whatever it takes to find renewal in your faith.  Share your doubts and struggles with a friend or mentor.  Take a prayer retreat, and spend time in prayer and silence.  Start a prayer journal.  Go on a faith renewal vacation with trusted friends who will lift you up.  Come back to church if you've left.  

In the words of the Apostle Paul, "...be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."  (Rom 12:2)

May you find the strength to address the cracks in your windshield today and every day.  May you discover the joy that comes from the grace of God, the healer of wounds, repairer of cracks and giver of all good things.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.