Good and Bad Church Signs

I'm not usually a fan of messages on church signs. Too often I find them sappy, trying to be uber-cute, and preoccupied with making all of us be well behaved little boys and girls. For example, if I see "CH_ _ CH - What's missing? U R!" one more time I'll just puke. However, every now and again someone puts words on a church sign that have impact, that are thought-provoking, that challenge us, and that make us uncomfortable. For example, I once saw a church sign message that said, "There are only two things you need to know. 1) There is a God. 2) You're not Him!" Now that's a church sign!

Anyway, I just saw one of those impact church signs not more than an hour ago. "Don't tell God how big your storm is. Tell the storm how big your God is." That's a great church sign, I think. There are a lot of ways to unpack this. Is God just our go-to when life gets stormy? In that case, God isn't much more than a 911 system; helpful, but not an entity whose power we so day by day or moment by moment. Or do we see God first before we even see the storm, in such a way that the storm is defined subservience to God before it even does its damage. If you believe in a God, how big and potent is your God? My God drags the dead carcasses of executed, unemployed carpenters and turns them into saviors. I'm just saying...

That's church sign doing its job. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.