An Evangelical Church in the Heart of Thatcham

Knives making better lives

Knives making better lives

London has just opened a new outdoor gym by the name of Steel Warriors. There’s no membership fee, there’s even a free coaching facility. Now if this doesn’t already sound too good to be true, this gym has been built from two tonnes of surrendered or confiscated knives taken off the streets of London by the Met Police.

This initiative is aiming to raise awareness of the growing issue of knife crime in the capital. The site features steel bars used for calisthenics, a type of exercise that makes use of a form of simple gymnastics. The hope is that these gyms, placed in more and more open sites in London, will create free and “safe spaces” where people can build confidence and show strength in more than just violent ways.Now it’s been said that: “The tongue like a sharp knife… kills without drawing blood.” The Bible goes into some detail describing the immense power of the tongue in these words:

“Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. … no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.”Ours words can be like knives, alternatively they can fit the proverb: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold In settings of silver.”

Perhaps, even today, we can make our tongues, our knives, count for better lives.

 

I am the Pastor at Thatcham Evangelical Church in West Berkshire. This is an FIEC (Fellowship of Evangelical Churches) affiliated church.