In the field of criminology, researchers discovered that communities that had buildings with broken windows also had higher petty crime rates.
This led to a very interesting question:
Are the petty crime rates in the community causing more windows to be broken, or the broken windows in the community are attracting more criminals?
It’s pretty much like the ‘Chicken-Egg Paradox’. What comes first: the Chicken or the Egg?
Regardless of what the cause is, broken windows in a comnunity is always associated with lawlessness and crime. As a result, broken windows in the community attract more petty criminals that would break more windows which would attract even more criminals that would break even more windows…this can go on and on, but hopefully, you got my point!
Interestingly, in spite of the resources and efforts spent on improving the intervention and number of law enforcement agents, the antics of petty criminals in the community continued to be on the rise.
For some odd reasons, however, the researchers noticed that as soon as the broken windows were fixed in a community, criminals stopped associating the area with lawlessness – and as a result, crime rates dropped drastically! The fixed windows exuded the presence of law and order, and as a result, the criminals stopped perceiving the comnunity as a crime hotspot.
These findings make up the backbone of what’s now called the ‘Broken Window’ theory.
What’s more? The Bible had been telling us the same thing for a while now.
A classic example is the case of King Saul in 1 Samuel 10:10,
‘And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them’
A similar story can be found in 1 Samuel 19:18-24, where not only Saul, but 3 groups of messengers started prophesying by virtue of being where the company of prophets were.
Great! So, how does this relate to me?
It’s simple. There is power in association!
Your associations would go a long way in determining the quality of your experience.
If you decide to associate yourself with 5 prayerful people, soon, you’d be the sixth.
If you associate with 5 millionaires, with time, you’d be the sixth.
It also follows that if you associate with 5 idiots, soon, you’d be the [fill in the gap].
If you don’t like where you’re standing now, check yourself out, you might just be associating yourself with the wrong crowd.