Last week I received a copy of a publication in which one of my weekly articles appeared. While it's always my prayer that someone will be helped through life's journey by something I've said or written, I enjoyed a bonus in scanning through the magazine. In a corner of one page a cartoon read: Church Parking. Trespassers will be baptized. Though probably not the best advice I've received concerning evangelism, it sure gave me a good laugh.
It also got my curiosity up and I decided to look for another sign. Here are a few that I found: Staying in bed shouting, 'Oh God!' does not constitute going to church; Walmart is not the only saving place; Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity; and God does not believe in atheists therefore atheists do not exist.
Whether funny or otherwise, we humans depend on signs. Earlier this year, a couple headed from Canada to a trade show in the US and ended up stuck on a logging road in a remote part of Nevada. It was a horrific ordeal. The good news is that Rita Chretien was found seven and a half weeks later, cold, starving and dehydrated but alive. Her husband, Albert, has never been found. What makes the story even more disturbing, for me at least, is that by following their GPS they ended up headed in the wrong direction. Technology isn't infallible.
Who of us hasn't looked for a sign at least once in our life? Faced with difficult decisions God has promised to lead us - not always in the way we'd chose - but He always knows best.
"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye." (Psalm 32:8)
One more sign: The most powerful position is on your knees.