We have been on the road again this past week. From home to Taylorsville, NC where Ray preached and we attended a family reunion; then on to Lexington to move a few books into our new offices and continue house-hunting. Add in a quick side trip to Boone and we have seen lots of highways, back roads, and scenic byways this week.
More travels this week in North and South Carolina meant that we saw many more church signs! One of the first we saw was When things go wrong, don’t go with them.
Another sign that we noticed – just as we almost missed the turn we needed to take at a small crossroad in rural NC – If you are headed the wrong way, God allows U-turns.
I’ll include one more that we discussed for quite awhile after we saw it: God gives special grace when troubles we face. Like many of the signs we have seen, which I didn’t post here, this one presents a view of God and of the world that troubles me. Cute, it rhymes and all; but do we really believe that God will only dole out grace in metered doses just in time to cure specific problems – or do we believe that God has ALREADY given us all that we need and more?
Sorry, but the voice of our ethics professor still rings in my head on this subject. This sign is yet another symptom of a prevailing theology of scarcity in our culture rather than a theology of abundance. We typically want to hoard and guard all that we think we possess, rather than trusting in God’s providence and plan for all of creation and sharing generously with each other.
Seeing this sign makes we wonder all over again how I/we can reach people where they are and help them recognize and experience God’s abundant mercy and amazing grace.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment