We based one of our services on road signs. Road signs are there to help us on a journey as long as you know what they mean and you take notice of them.
Then I thought that there are parallels with our spiritual journey, so we explored that idea.
We started with a road sign quiz and although we would have learnt the signs when we took our driving test, we found we had forgotten some because we had not looked at the highway code for years. We then drew the parallel with our spiritual highway code, the bible, and reminded ourselves that we need to keep going back to it, if it is to help us on our journey.
We then looked at a few specific signs.
No U-turn sign. – This reminds us that having committed to follow Jesus, if we sometimes feel like giving up, Jesus doesn’t want us to do a u-turn. We looked at the story of Peter, who denied Jesus but Jesus still called him to feed his sheep. You can develop this idea perhaps by using my Peter sketch, or talk about experiences when you wanted to give up.
Stop sign. This reminds us that we have to ‘come apart and rest awhile’. I remember seeing a sign outside a church which said, ‘Come ye apart and rest awhile, for if you don’t rest awhile, you will come apart’. We talked about the importance of finding time in our busy life just to be still with God. You could do a meditation such as one in the ‘Multi-sensory Prayers’ book or use the reading ‘Sharpen your axe’ from Hot Illustrations.
Cross roads sign. This reminds us that there are times when we have to make decisions and we looked at how much we involved God in our decisions? You could use the reading ‘Yes or No’ and discuss how God can be part of our decisions. Or you could discuss decisions you have made in your life, particularly your decision to become a Christian.
We then gave everyone a sheet of road signs to see if they felt any road signs applied to their spiritual journey and then gave everyone time to share their thoughts.