Signs Along the Way

Signs, signs, everywhere a sign…

Blocking out the scenery and breaking my mind!

There are all kinds of signs along the pathways of life. Signs to direct us, inform us, warn us, tempt us—and occasionally confuse the daylights out of us.

You can always tell when political season has arrived because suddenly every patch of grass along the highway sprouts a candidate.

Those little signs start littering the roads, bombarding us with names of people running for offices we sometimes didn't even know existed.

We pass our candidate and think, Yep, that's my guy.

Then we pass his opponent and perhaps entertain the fleeting thought that it wouldn't be terrible if a strong gust of wind carried that particular sign into the next county.

You know you've thought about it.

But don't give in to the Dark Side.

Apparently, there are people who actually go around plucking up their opponent's signs.

The people I really feel sorry for during political season are those trying to sell a house—and their Realtors.

During normal times, a FOR SALE sign catches your eye.

During election season?

Just another sign.

Keep driving.

These signs play games with our minds. Or maybe just mine.  It is like a political spam on my drive home.

Years ago, while traveling back home over Memorial Day weekend, I experienced what I can only describe as sign intervention.

I had poison ivy.

Thank you for your sympathy.

After several hours of driving, I hit Birmingham traffic during a rain shower when my left forearm began itching.

Not just itching.

Poison ivy itching.

If you know, you know.

The first scratch leads you down a dark and dangerous path known as Scratchmania. Give in once and you are doomed.

I tried to ignore it.

I was driving in the rain, in Birmingham traffic, with my entire family in the vehicle—including the family dog. I was Super Mom. I was strong. I would not surrender to an itch.

And then I saw The Sign.

There, towering over the interstate on a huge billboard, were the words:

HAVE AN ITCH? SCRATCH IT!

Well.

I scratched it.

The sign made me do it.

Turns out it was an advertisement for the Tunica casinos and had absolutely nothing to do with helping poison ivy sufferers.

But the damage was done.

The sign won.

Poison ivy won.

But nobody died.

So there's that.

Of course, signs don't always lead us in the right direction.

Sometimes you're trying to lose five pounds and suddenly every billboard between Huntsville and Mississippi features a cheeseburger the size of your steering wheel, dripping with cheese and accompanied by perfectly golden fries.

Or worse.

You see those beautiful words glowing in red:

HOT NOW.

Krispy Kreme doesn't even need a billboard.

That's not a sign.

That's a tractor beam.

And I am apparently defenseless against it.

But a sign can tempt you without being responsible for what you do next. At some point, you've got to admit that the sign didn't make you eat three doughnuts.

You did that all by yourself.

On that same road trip, I received another lesson in the importance of signs.

The interstate narrowed and traffic began merging. A woman beside me was so busy talking on her phone that she waited until the last possible second to whip her car into my lane.

She nearly took out my entire family.

And right after she did it, a giant electronic highway sign flashed:

HANG UP AND DRIVE!

Perfect timing.

I wanted to point upward and yell, "THAT MEANS YOU!"

I've often thought cars should come equipped with electronic message boards on the roof so drivers could communicate with one another.

Nothing profane, of course.

Just polite Southern passive-aggressive messages.

GOOD JOB MERGING!

BLESS YOUR HEART!

THAT BLINKER CAME WITH THE CAR!

And perhaps the ever-useful:

YOU ALMOST KILLED US, BUT HAVE A NICE DAY!

I'm fairly certain we'd all be arrested within a week.

Not every sign in life comes in neon letters or stands beside the interstate.

Some are quieter.

There are signs that a relationship isn't what it should be.

Signs that your children may be struggling with something bigger than you realized.

Signs that maybe it's time to make a change.

And then there are the good ones.

The first golden leaves telling you fall is coming.

A cool breeze after a brutally hot Southern summer.

The face of someone you love lighting up when you walk through the door.

A prayer answered in a way you didn't expect.

Sometimes we see the signs clearly.

Sometimes we ignore them.

And sometimes God probably has to put up the spiritual equivalent of a flashing billboard before we finally say,

"Ohhhh. You meant me."

Years ago, comedian Bill Engvall made a career out of the phrase, "Here's your sign."

His joke was that people who asked ridiculously obvious questions should probably be issued a sign announcing their condition to the rest of us.

Like pulling into a service station with a flat tire and someone asking, "Got a flat?"

"Nope. The other three just swelled up."

Here's your sign.

I could probably hand out a few of those myself.

Of course, somebody might hand one right back to me.

And they'd probably have evidence.

The older I get, though, the more I realize that life really is full of signs.

Some warn us.

Some tempt us.

Some make us laugh.

Some tell us we're headed in the wrong direction.

And some point us toward exactly where we need to go.

You just have to be paying attention.

Otherwise, you might miss your turn.

As I reflect on my life, I can see where I missed my turns, signs along the journey of my life that I completely missed. Doors closing that I thought were disasters, or detours I did not take. Change that I fought against and then only miles later on that road, I realized some of those were not roadblocks but directions.

I am thankful for some of those road closed signs and sad that I skipped past a few of them. Lessons we all learn.

These became obvious only after I passed them. God was present through all the missteps.

And after all the billboards, political signs, highway warnings and flashing advertisements I've seen over the years, one of my favorites is still one of the simplest.

You've probably seen it yourself.

The football sails through the goalposts. The television camera follows it.

And somewhere in the crowd, someone holds up a little sign:

JOHN 3:16

No campaign slogan.

No advertisement.

No flashing lights.

Just three little numbers and a colon pointing anyone curious enough to look toward the most important message of all:

"For God so loved the world…"

Now...

There’s your sign.