A popular song in the early ’70s (yep, I’m old) said, “Sign, sign, everywhere a sign — blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind — Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?” I liked this song because it was a rebellious time in our nation and to a lesser extent, in my life, and I thought it was cool to like things that were “anti-establishment.”
Our rebellious culture hasn’t changed much, but thankfully, my attitude toward authority has … well, most of the time …
For example, I never had an urge to wash my shoes in the sink of a restroom until I saw a sign in a school telling me not to. Another sign at a school (“Don’t wear your cleats in the building”) made me want to dig out my long-retired softball cleats and stomp in the halls.
I saw this message taped above a toilet: “Hold handle down for seven seconds.” Why should I believe it would take precisely seven seconds – not six or eight – to achieve a perfect flush? I felt compelled to challenge the sign and find out.
A similar sign in another restroom read, “Keep handle depressed until bowl empties.” My skewed mind wondered what it might take to depress a toilet handle. Perhaps shouting, “Hey – you’re gonna be a toilet handle forever! You’re never gonna get out of this stall!” That would certainly depress me.
Another sign in a school restroom displayed a giant nose with a finger heading toward it, surrounded by a large red circle with a slash through it. To avoid offending anyone’s tender sensibilities, I won’t share the poem accompanying this artwork, but it included the words “pick” and “stick” and was obviously intended to keep youngsters from, well … you can figure it out. I was not tempted to cross that particular line, although I’m willing to bet somebody was.
Why? Because some folks have never met a rule they didn’t want to break.
Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Maybe you are one of those compliant types who obey all the rules, but most of us are not. Not hardened criminals, to be sure, but feisty enough to occasionally feel an urge to cross a few lines.
Rules are necessary and good, but we shouldn’t be surprised by the rebellious desires they can sometimes arouse. The Apostle Paul wasn’t.
He wrote, “For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7:5-6)
If we think Christianity is all about “do’s and don’ts,” we’re missing the point. If we live as we were created to live – in a vibrant, loving relationship with Jesus Christ – something much more powerful than rules will motivate us to respect God’s good boundaries in our lives.
So, I won’t wash my shoes in the sink or wear my cleats in the building. Not because I’m constrained by the ones who make the signs, but because I’m constrained by the love of Jesus Christ — the One who IS the ultimate Sign of goodness and love and who always, in all situations, beckons me down paths of wisdom and life.