If you are a regular follower, you know that I’m an avid lover and beginner collector of signage…fondly called my Spiritual Traffic Signs! Since writing the blog post entitled the same almost a year ago, I’ve acquired a few more pieces for my signage collection. One that grabbed my attention, although kind of eclectically and artistically designed, simply reads, Faith. It also has the words Faith, Hope and Love displayed on the far right side— A beautiful visual of three powerful words of a scripture in I Corinthians.
As you can see from the featured image, this spiritual traffic sign has a broken piece. Actually, it has been broken for months, however my procrastinating spirit, that’s in need of some much-needed repair, wouldn’t allow me to fix it. Ha! Even having walked past this sign day-in and day-out for months, my eyes somehow truly focused on it on this particular day, and my brain started the same ole TCV analytics of something appearing to be so simple, but yet so thought-provoking in an eyebrow raising sort of way. It’s only a broken piece of wood; a regular ole home decor trinket; a clear representative piece of neglect.
What, all of a sudden, is so strikingly interesting about this low-budget artwork picked up in a clearance section of the local Hobby Lobby? My initial thoughts arrowed immediately to broken faith. What does it mean to have your faith broken? What things, life happenings or experiences can cause you to feel like, “Wow, my faith seems a little broken right now.”? For me, maybe it meant temporary loss of a person’s faith and trust in God to deliver His promises. It meant embarking on a spirit-soiled journey of worry, and less prayer. It meant looking outside of the Will of God to give you peace about a situation. It meant that a person had to be in a pretty bad space, if faith was broken. Had they lost The Light to illuminate their season of darkness? That thought made me sad, however this ole girl knew she had been near this crossroad before—the intersection of Life Challenges Road and Temporary Misplaced Faith Avenue!
Looking at the right side of image again, a few questions surfaced…What about the strange dynamic of Hope being split– proportionately cut in half? Why did Faith and Love, each have only a half of Hope? Why was the focal point of this picturesque display of Faith fragmented? It appears that Faith was the primary message that the artwork was intended to convey beyond anything else, right? Could it be that because we are believers in Christ, that we, by default, should have Faith in God, as the big picture? Could it be that although we supposedly operate in total Faith, sometimes our Hope gets broken? Could it be the same in regard to Love? Even though God requires us to love and fully believe that love is truly supreme, Hope can be broken in search of it, or trying to maintain it in the right or Godly way. As this marinates, it becomes even more thought-provoking for me, so I have to give the sign a few more looks…
Hopefully, you will do the same (take some extra looks), then re-read this post. An array of opinions and conclusions may surface, resulting in your own unique ‘take’ on this broken piece. For me, I’m taking it here…. I Corinthians 13:13 rings true—
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (NIV) All three are gifts, and I’ve been given a daily reminder, served up by this wooden signage! I’m also reminded that as we experience the many, many, many challenges of this life, we should remember these gifts. Even when we’re broken, whether because of broken trust, broken finances, a broken home, a broken marriage, a broken heart or a broken spirit—you get my drift, our Faith should remain standing. Remember that God is Love! We can have Faith (that of a mustard seed), and maybe a sprinkling of Hope, but have an abundance of Love, and possess the greater gift! Keep all three pieces in tact! I will fix the sign. Well, maybe I’ll get it fixed 😉
Peace and Blessings, Lisa B