There are many different kinds of barriers which can have either a positive or negative effect. These old groynes were intended to stop coastline erosion and protect beach habitat. As you see, they are now broken down in many places and no longer really functional. The word groyne (groin in the USA) comes from the Old French groign and Late Latin grunium meaning ‘snout’ which is appropriate as it sticks out from the shore into a body of water! The earliest mention of groynes was made by Fernando Poyntz in 1582 when referring to planned improvements for the silted-up Dover harbour. In 1713 the first wooden groyne was built to protect Brighton’s seafront and the first concrete groyne was built near East Street, Brighton (also south coast of UK) as a 60 m promenade in 1867. When you think about it, there are many barriers in our lives, some useful but others that need to be torn down for breakthroughs to happen.
- ‘The Berlin Wall wasn’t the only barrier to fall after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Traditional barriers to the flow of money, trade, people and ideas also fell’ – Fareed Zakaria
- ‘The tennis ball doesn’t know how old I am. The ball doesn’t know if I’m a man or a woman or if I come from a communist country or not. Sport has always broken down these barriers’- Martina Navratilova
- ‘Instead of me having a breakdown, I’m focusing on me having a breakthrough’ – Terrell Owens
- ‘Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope’ – Maya Angelou
It is always true to say that a safety barrier by a cliff is a good thing as it saves lives. Other walls can enforce prejudices and mistreatment of people – racial discrimination, minority exclusion and religious persecution are examples. Prison walls serve a purpose but walls such as those in Palestine and Mexico affect populations both sides of the divide adversely that will build up negative pressure waiting to burst out. If you build a dam, then you will get a reservoir which we would see as a benefit to secure drinking water for a community. When a beaver starts chewing trees, you know there’ll be a logjam with benefits to wetland habitats but they were hunted for their fur, meat and castoreum (used in medicine, perfume and food flavouring) almost to extinction. There are some barriers to human dignity such as slavery and apartheid that needed to come down but it took brave people like Shaftesbury, Wilberforce and Martin Luther King to do so. In May 1943, Operation Chastise known as the ‘Dambusters Raid’ was an attack on German dams by 617 Squadron RAF Bomber Command using special bouncing bombs developed by Barnes Wallis. This was a significant setback for the Nazi war effort. The RAF lost 53 aircrew with 8 aircraft destroyed. Do you recognise barriers in your life? Are there some that are helpful to shape your behaviour positively but others that are blockages preventing you from reaching your potential? What is your strategy to address the latter? Be aware that there may be a personal cost in removing them but don’t let that stop you doing the right thing.
- ‘Don’t let anyone look down on you for being young. Instead, make your speech, behaviour, love, faith, and purity an example for other believers’ – 1 Timothy 4:12
- ‘There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus’ – Galatians 3:28
Prejudice and any belittling of others is offensive to God. Jesus demonstrated this in his firm dealings with the self-righteous pharisees as contrasted with his gentleness to the Samaritan outcasts, the woman taken in adultery, the fraudulent tax official and the many sick who came to him for healing. Jesus broke down many barriers including the biggest barriers of all for a human – sin, death and separation from God.
- ‘But now, in union with Christ Jesus you, who used to be far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has brought us peace by making Jews and Gentiles one people. With his own body he broke down the wall that separated them and kept them enemies. He abolished the Jewish Law with its commandments and rules, in order to create out of the two races one new people in union with himself, in this way making peace’ – Ephesian 2:13-15
- ‘Those who heard him went away, one by one, beginning with the elders. Finally, only Jesus and the woman were left in the middle of the crowd. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Is there no one to condemn you?” She said, “No one, sir”’ – John 8:9-11
- ‘So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. When Jesus came to that spot, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay in your home today.” So Zacchaeus came down at once, happy to welcome Jesus’ – Luke 19:4-6
- ‘The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”’ – Luke 7:34
Take time to consider whether there are barriers around you that need to be broken through or if you can recognise walls around others that need to be confronted with grace and courage. You may also see in the landscape of your life that there are old barriers that have become redundant and are already broken down. Examples might be those of legalistic practices and addictions (to drugs or pornography) – maybe it’s time to remove them and any traces of them from the scenery in which you live.
Boxed into a Corner? (connect4life.org.uk)
TRANSFORMATION (connect4life.org.uk)
TAGS – change, decay, disagreement, disharmony, legalism, division, contempt, confrontation