Chaplain's Message

We have not yet had really icy mornings, the ones that coat the windscreen and freeze the water as soon as it hits the glass. However, last week it was sufficiently sludgy to need a wipe – so with my trusty cloth and warm water I carefully wiped away the last vestiges of a burgeoning ice event! 

As I turned the corner onto the straight, the sun hit my windscreen and I was completely blinded.  I could see nothing! Larapinta Drive stretched ahead of me complete with cars on their way to work. I desperately tried to draw close to the edge and I slowed to snail’s pace. I found myself actually mounting the curb on the left-hand side of the road. I stopped, cars hooting, my heart pounding. I pulled the scarf from round my neck to wipe the inside of the glass to try and get some clarity! Sure enough the reflection of the sun on my windscreen subsided and I was able to see through the little “clean spot” I had created. 

I realized the problem was not the outside – but it was the fug and gunk that had collected on the inside of my window that was causing the problem – blinding me with the reflection of our bright morning sunshine! A good going over with my trusty “window clean” and I am now good as new and more importantly safe as I come around the corner into the blast of sunshine on my window! 

I was very forcibly reminded that it can be like that when God looks at us and sees into our very being. We can be blinded to what is going on around us, influencing us to make wrong choices, drawing our priorities away from Him and what He has for us. God doesn’t look at the outside he looks at the inside, at what’s going on in our hearts and in our heads. It is there that the real work of God takes place – it is on the inside that we need to ask for help to get “cleaned up”. 

That is the offer of the cross, unconditional forgiveness that frees us from shame and guilt so that outside influences cannot blind us to the truth of his love and guidance and our real purpose.

We come back to King David after his affair with Bathsheba – he was blinded by her beauty and his desire, and it led him into a crisis.   

“Upon realizing the extent to which he had betrayed his God, David penned Psalm 51. It’s a heartfelt prayer, begging for God’s mercy, cleansing, and restoration. 

In Psalm 51:10-12, David prayed: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.”

May we take this prayer into the holidays – “clean your windscreen on the inside” and be safe! 

~Pastor Sarah Pollitt

College Chaplain