Where’s the Stop Sign?

It was about 1968. We had just lost out in a basketball tournament in another city. I was angry at the whole situation. As some buddies and I sat in the bleachers after the loss, I was feeling shall we say, destructive. I guess it was an emotional mix of anger, disappointment, frustration, regret, and malice. I felt like I needed to vent. I said to my buddies, “Let’s go outside.” They agreed, so we stepped out into the night to walk around. As we walked around outside and angrily voiced our feelings concerning our game loss, we came upon an intersection having a stop sign. For some reason, we decided to pull that stop sign up and put it in the back of pick-up truck parked nearby. We thought that would be really funny for the driver to take off and later discover he had a stop sign in the back of his pick-up. We did the deed and went back inside and sat down in the bleachers. As I sat there, I got to thinking how people depend on that stop sign, and if it is missing, what we did could cause a serious accident. I expressed my concern to my buddies, and they agreed. So, we went back out there and got the stop sign out of the pick-up and proceeded to put it back into the hole in the ground. Just as we were doing that, a man with campus security came walking across the yard to where we were and inquired as to what we were doing. When we told him what we were doing -– putting the stop sign back into the ground –- the man did not believe us. He was convinced we were taking the stop sign up. Our persuasions did not convince him. He promptly escorted us back into the gym to our principle who was present at the game. When the man reported to the principle what was going on, the principle got so mad he turned pale and started shaking. He lined us up in front of him and grabbed the outer two boys by the shoulders and started shaking them and yelling at us all. I stood in the middle, scared, but glad I was not standing on the outside of us three boys. After that incident, and the discipline we received for that incident, I learned better ways to vent my anger and frustration. The Lord disciplines us for our bad choices and wrong doing through His Word and His Spirit. If we heed His discipline, He will keep us from a greater evil. With the stop sign, the greater evil would have been to leave the stop sign in the pick-up and somebody get killed at the intersection. That incident could have changed the whole direction of our lives. It was the mercy and grace of God working in our conscience, in repentance, and in discipline, that administered God’s love for us. Just know, God loves you.

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