Signposts on the Road of Life

While it sounds great, it isn’t practical … or is it? Amazingly enough, God is constantly sending us messages, giving us direction and reminding us of His love. The signposts that cry out these messages are often missed, however, because they are so every day, so commonplace, so “right in front of our noses.“

In Jeremiah 31:21, we read, “Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the road that you take.” One of God’s gifts to me is the ability to see spiritual meaning in many of life’s simplest, most every day things. As I take the time to note these things, I get a broadcasted message from God that is loud and clear and which directs me as I travel the highways and byways of my life.

What do these signposts look like? Many of them look like messages He has orchestrated in life from the very beginning. I absolutely believe that everything on earth has a spiritual application. I may not have yet discerned that application, but it is there. For instance, upon the birth of our first child, I began to understand the heart of God, the Father. I began to understand how the Father feels for us, His children, and why discipline is so important. I also learned from the Father’s heart that “controlling” my child won’t make her good, and that how I treat her when she’s three is not how I treat her when she’s thirteen. As our daughter grows, I find new spiritual lessons all the time, because I often realize as I am “parenting” her, “This must be how God feels whenever I ….”

Sometimes signposts are literal signposts. As a young man searched for God, I witnessed, “God can even speak to you through a sign on the road.” That day as he drove to his sister’s home, he saw a sign, “Got God?” He knew God was speaking to him.

Sometimes signposts are more dramatic, even frightening. As this same young man continued to seek God, he was given special vision. He told us, “The other night I was in bed, trying to sleep. I looked out into the living room and saw … shadows … black shadows, and they started to come toward me. I sat up in bed because I was afraid. They just kept coming toward me. They were in my room, surrounding me.” In my heart I began to praise God for a signpost. “God has given you a great gift,” I said to him, and he looked at me like I was crazy. “He has let you see that you are surrounded by demons.” Of course, the good news was that Jesus had power over those demons and those who are in a personal relationship with Him have access to His power.

Other signposts have come from parable-like experiences. Just as Jesus looked at a farmer and described the Kingdom principle of spreading the gospel, so sometimes while I am doing something, I realize that it has a Kingdom lesson to teach. When playing with children, I make a play-dough man and think of how God must have felt as He created man. The lesson takes on more meaning as I contemplate how much it would take for me to choose to be a clay person and then die so that it might live.

Laws of nature can also hold spiritual meaning. From the law of gravity we learn that what goes up must come down. When we try to raise ourselves up to prideful heights, we know that a “coming down” is in our future. [Pride (going up) goes before a fall (going down.)]

Sometimes I learn a spiritual truth through new information. I once read about a small worm that bores through a clam shell and eats the clam on the inside. The shell still looks perfectly whole, but inside, the live part is eaten away completely. Hidden sin has the same effect. We can look perfectly whole to the world, but inside the sin is eating away at our souls.

The more I notice things, the more I realize that God is sending messages all the time, all around me. My responsibility is to be watching, always asking, and then taking heed when He draws my attention to the signpost. From the signpost, I know the way to go. All that is left then is choosing to actually go that way.