2006, December 04: Signs of the Times

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

I spent most of last week in board meetings in Washington, D.C. Driving down one street, as Christmas approaches, I noticed what initially appeared to be simple directions and market ploys. But try and read between the lines and see where they lead you.

One sidewalk board proclaimed “Free to be Fierce – The Next U.S. Top Model.” Not a great prospect for a partner or mother and a tough sister to grow up with. There’s nothing like a person who gets the spotlight but who is free from boundaries.

“Please Give” came next, as if it was created to nullify the values of the fierce self-centeredness often glitzed as success. “National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial” and then “Arlington Cemetery” bore the history of those who died for something greater than themselves.

“Pentagon Parking” led you to the bastion of world military might – but not sufficient to produce real peace.

Valet Parking at the Inn” was a real thought-jerker! Imagine reading that as you rode into Bethlehem.

“Enough to make even die hard agnostics believe, at least for a moment, in the mystical powers of drama.”   This may be the most revealing of all if you read between the lines. Failing all else, drama will fill the vagaries of a country and its people that do not know what to believe. G. K. Chesterton wrote a long time back that when people cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing. They will believe anything. But even the mystical power of drama will distract only for a few moments and agnostics know it.

Christmas catches us at a time when we are to believe and endorse everything lest we be thought of as politically incorrect. And this may well be a sign of the vacuum in which many of us live – a vacuum that will not remain friendly, by the way, to law enforcement.

As we approach Christmas there was another sign. It was not printed on billboards; it was delivered in person. Most people missed it. It was told not to theologians or the religiously righteous but, rather, to people on the midnight shift: “Let this be a sign to you…”

Across the next few weeks we will follow all kinds of signs. Only one will lead to Bethlehem and this is one for which services cannot give you the cross streets. Watch where you’re going and don’t miss the sign.

Stay safe and you have been prayed for.