At the end of a family’s driveway on a stretch of rural highway in Washington County, Missouri is a square white sign that reads, “YOUR FORGIVEN” on one side and “THINK GOD” on the other. Immediately across the road, the neighbor flies a Confederate flag.
Sometimes I intentionally take a different route home because I know that my emotional constitution that day won’t allow me to handle these provocations with any sort of grace at all. Most days, I’m both irritated by and perplexed by the sign, and fascinated by the people who chose to put it there.
I’d like to talk with them about how much confusion is created by poor spelling and punctuation.
But kind of like when I was living in Asia and had to learn to accept that translations from Mandarin to English could be rough, I realize that the owners didn’t write what they meant to write. They mean to say “YOU’RE FORGIVEN”.
I want to talk to them about good marketing.
If you use poor grammar or misspell words in your marketing deliverables, your credibility disappears. If you can’t spell “you’re” correctly on a sign, why should anyone trust you to know about anything as big and complicated as forgiveness? You’ve just given all the educated people who drive past your house one more reason to be freaked out by religion. You’ve not made the case for God – you’ve detracted from it.
I’d like to talk with them about trees.
If you took a beautiful gift from me, cut it up, painted it a different color, put some cheesy, badly-spelled words on it, and then said “READ SMALL TOWN GIRL’S GUIDE” on it, I wouldn’t be flattered.
God gave you beautiful trees in a huge forest, and you cut His trees down, painted them a different color, and placed misspelled words on them. Then you put his name on the other side of the sign (“THINK GOD”), as if you’re doing him an honor. I wonder what God thinks when he sees your ugly sign, and I wonder if he misses the trees you cut down to build it.
I’d also like to talk with them about good manners.
There are days when I feel like every church in Missouri has something clever to say, some big new sign in their front yard on which they tell me what God’s like or who God is or how tiny I am in comparison to him. I want to tell those churches that their signs are blocking an otherwise magnificent view of the deep rolling hills God graced Washington County with.
I want to tell them that my hour-long commutes are my conversations with God, and that their all-capital-letter, screaming signs are interrupting us. I want to tell them that God already reminds me of my own smallness with his wall-shaking, teeth-rattling claps of thunder on hot Missouri summer afternoons.
I wonder who’s smarter; the neighbor who can’t spell “you’re” or the neighbor who somehow missed the fact that the Civil War ended 150 years ago.
I wonder which came first; the FORGIVEN sign or the flag.
I wonder how anyone could think that a sign at the foot of their driveway could save someone’s soul or direct them to God.
I wonder a lot of things, and no matter how much I try, I can’t force myself to make any excuses for rural Missouri this time.
Yeehooo!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pargon/sets/72157623594187379/
Oh Factor, that’s great link. Thanks for sharing, lol.
My favorite in rural Southern Illinois read “REALLY PRAY” as if everyone passing by was just half-assing it constantly. This was painted on cardboard and placed next to their mailbox. At least they re-used an old box?
I’ve pondered that sign many times as I drove along AA. Most of the time it just amused me, especially juxtaposed against the confederate flag. During the presidential election they also had a sign up about Obama, something about how you shouldn’t elect a terrorist or something just as obnoxious. If you look close enough on the sign, you’ll see tiny pencil markings where one of the Lakewood Counselors corrected their spelling and added an apostrophe and an “re.”
I agree with everything that you said in your post. Some days it annoyed the hell out of my English major, raised in the city self. And some days I resigned to the fact that even if you’re dumb enough to have a sign MADE and then misspell something, God probably loves you anyway. Because Lord only knows all of the things that I’ve misspelled . . .
I’m gonna blame it on No Child Left Behind. But then, I blame everything on it these days…..
Tiny apostrophe thing in paragraph 4.
Did you ever stop to “think” that “THINK GOD” is exactly what they meant to say? Not your negative interpretation that involes correct grammar. I am sorry that all you see is how they spelled their sign at the end of their driveway. That is sad to me. Way too many things in life to worry about besides that. Oh, and speaking of spelling…your tag “neighborhs” is wrong. It’s “neighbors”. You might want to run a spell check before you post a blog about spelling.
*involves
Me: that’s a bit harsh. Presumably god will forgive you.
Yes signs with mis-spelled words drive me crazy. I agree with you.
Great post as always.
Hi Me,
Thanks for pointing out the misspelling of “neighbors” in my tag. Unfortunately I can’t run spell check on my tags, so I’m glad you caught that and shared it with me. I’ve fixed it now.
I never implicated that the owners didn’t mean “THINK GOD” when they wrote “THINK GOD”. I implicated that they meant “YOU’RE FORGIVEN” when they said “YOUR FORGIVEN”.
You’re right that there a lot of things in this life that are worth worrying about more than a misspelled word, but that’s sort of the point of my post. Forgiveness and faith are pretty important things, and the owners’ carelessness on this sign minimizes that importance.
I’m sorry if my ideas offended you. Their typos on a sign about a God who I’ve spent my whole life trying to know better offended me, too.
Oh, good catch. Thanks!
Obvious grammar policing aside, I got an immediate impression that ‘your forgiven’ could be taken a whole different way.
Instead of intending you are forgiven, perhaps they mean for you to stop and think about the people you’ve forgiven.
Todd, I hadn’t thought about that way and I doubt that the owners were thinking of it that way, either. I like your idea though…Maybe now I’ll see the sign a little bit differently.
As a Christian, I find it very frustrating with signs like the one you mentioned, the Jesus fish pasted onto the back of vehicles, or when you see a bumper sticker or a billboard that simply reads, “Jesus”. My faith in God did not stem from a billboard or a Jesus fish or a bumper sticker or any sign posted on the side of a road.
Will a person come to know Christ or God through these marketed images? I have no clue. I didn’t, but does that rule it out altogether?
To pass by and see one of these signs is at times, a reminder when I least expect it. Should I need that reminder, no, but I’m human, just as much as the person in the cube working next to me. God speaks to people in all ways, shapes and forms. Should I judge whether or not if He spoke to someone through a billboard? No.
Based on your post, I’m thinking you’ll enjoy a blog I follow: http://www.jesusneedsnewpr.net/ I follow Matt on twitter (@JesusNeedsNewPR)as well and he provides some amazing blogs & tweets. I really enjoyed this post and if it stirred up some controversy, you’ve struck a nerve in people. Even if they don’t agree with you, you now have them “THINKing God”.
…so, did sign with poor gramar work? Seems like it has.
Great post!
As a teacher, there are similar headaches in the classroom. Well done.
Interesting post, and interesting comments! I love that there are so many points of view out there, and that folks are not afraid to express them. Keep writing!
Although I loved this post… I’m pretty sure God is not looking down and hating on our grammer… I think he loved them for their attempt.
With that being said… yes, if you are going to take the time to create a sign that will be posted in your yard for everyone to see… for pete’s sake spell check it! For a Christian… that is like an American hanging a ratty, torn American flag in your yard… doesn’t “represent” very well.
It’s like saying… “Eh, yeeeah, I’m an American… but I don’t ‘really’ care that much about it… just wanted to hear myself talk.”
Are you serious? Is your faith and your view of God so small that you are unable to see Him because of a typo? Do you seriously believe those people cannot understand forgiveness because they mispelled you’re? This cannot be for real. Is it April Fool’s Day again? Am I on Candid Camera?
Obviously they don’t care about the “educated” people who drive by. Maybe they are marketing to someone other than you. Maybe that audience spells it your, or maybe they are not so easily offended. Perhaps God is not so concerned about perfection and just wants someone who will acknowledge Him and not try to intellectualize Him away. Maybe He wants someone who will take a stand. Maybe you are not the Holy Spirit. Maybe you are not the sole judge of ugly. Maybe many people have been drawn to God through that sign. Who are you to judge that or the people you admittedly don’t know for writing it? You know what they say about assumptions. Or maybe as Todd said it means something else entirely. Just because you have judged it otherwise doesn’t make it so.
You want to talk to them about marketing? If you ask me they are brilliant marketers. They got you didn’t they? As a marketer you should be able to list hundreds of successful campaigns that were shocking or wrong or improper in any number of ways.
This post is the perfect example of what is wrong with education. Education has closed your mind, not opened it. You look down your nose and mock people based on a flaw. You accept a wide variety of faults and flaws in general in the name of being “open-minded”, but here you show how small minded you are when someone does not meet your elitest standards. You show your ignorance of things that truly matter. Spelling does not make one bit of eternal difference (since that is what forgiveness is about) but you choose to throw out the baby with the bath water. This is one of the most ridiculous, self-righteous, condescending posts I have read in a long time.
Where is it good manners to mock someone for their beliefs Miss Small Town Girl Manners? Pull the log out of your eye before you pick the speck out of your brother’s.
I wonder a lot of things, and no matter how much I try, I can’t force myself to make any excuses for Small Town Girl this time.
P.S. How many people were drawn to God by your mockery of someone’s religious expression?
Josh,
Thanks for your comment. Hopefully you’re right, and people are thinking about God tonight in a different ways. I know that I certainly am.
I’ll check out the blog you mentioned, thanks for the link.
Thanks again for the comment,
M
Mighty Oak,
Thank you for taking the time to leave such a really thoughtful comment here. I certainly didn’t intend mockery. My heart breaks when I think about the many, many “educated” people who are turned away from God because of Christian who try too hard to turn them on to God.
Touche on your point about “shocking or wrong or improper” marketing being successful. You’re absolutely right.
I recognize that my post may have been judgmental, but I would argue that it was NOT a mockery. I wasn’t laughing when I wrote this. Quite to the contrary, my heard was aching.
I sincerely hope that this sign has affected people in a positive way. It just happens that it’s affected me in a negative one.
Devil’s Advocate here… and a spin on the upset responses while relating to your post:
Maybe the folks with the sign saved the cutting down of more trees after they realized the typo, because their point was probably still understood anyway, even in the guise of a typo? I’m a perfectionist, so I would’ve appreciated the feedback and redone the sign immediately. Maybe I should think next time about the trees I could save if I could just ‘let it go?’
Just goes to show how we all have different responses to different things of varying importance.
What’s interesting, is neither your response nor theirs is wrong; it’s simply different.
Just a thought after reading. Enjoyed the post!
Is this a competition to see who can be the most earnest? I think we need a tie breaker – it’s neck and neck!
“This post is the perfect example of what is wrong with education.” – Mighty Oak
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Stupid learnin books.
Just as you did not intend mockery, neither did the people who posted the sign likely intend offense. It is all perspective. When we judge ourselves we know what we mean to say or do. We know the feelings and thoughts that went into the word or action, but when we judge others we do it based on 2 or 4 or 1000 words and know little or nothing of the intent behind it.
If your implication is correct and there are not many “educated” people who are driving down that road then how many of them were turned away from God by that sign? Were you? It doesn’t seem like it. It seems like you were just offended. I would guess not many “educated” were potentially turned from God until your post went to the world and exposed them to it. In that way it was your post, not the sign, that caused the spiritual damage to the people who read it.
If your heart is aching for the educated supposedly turned away from God, then you should reach out to them and draw them to God, not provide them an opportunity to turn away. Maybe they are your sphere of influence and not the sign makers. Do your part in your sphere and don’t expect someone who is not in that sphere to do that job. Perhaps the sign maker’s heart aches for the many, many people who are separated from God because no one had the courage to speak up.
Lastly I would suggest that the proper response when offended is not to go to the world and complain about the offense. What can the world do about it? The sign maker is the only one who can make it better.
P.S. Heart, not “heard”
And Factor has proven my point exactly.
Yes, education is very dangerous. If we could all be folksy and churchy we’d be exempt from criticism.
Hmmm you entirely miss my point also. Education is not better or worse. It is merely more or less educated. Focus on the minor (grammar) detracts from the significance of the major (forgiveness and/or God).
If you want to address their point about God and forgiveness then do so. But you simply say it doesn’t need addressed because you can mock and devalue the person. Where is the intellectual honesty in that? Has education closed your mind to what you are doing or is it your intent to demean so you don’t have to address the real point?
Too many people let their education get in the way of their love for God.
Theirs too much foolishness going on to be bothered by the lack of an ‘re.
Over correct the foolish rather than just those who make simple human errors hun
Grammar keeps me in clean shirts and orange juice in places where I never have to see posters with aborted fetuses on them. So thank god for that! (Ha, ha) Maybe Small Town Girl would like to join me here, or increase her offense threshold a bit before venturing out of the house.
A number of years ago we were driving through rural Louisiana at Christmastime when we saw one of those portable signs outside a service station that perfectly encapsulated small town values:
JESUS IS LORD
WE PROCESS DEER
If you’re implying that education has gotten in the way of my love for God, you’re quite wrong, because my education has made my faith stronger. I’ve had the opportunity to study and work alongside classmates and colleagues from all different religious backgrounds and of countless nationalities.
My education and the experiences my career has brought with it have afforded me the opportunity to ask questions of Buddhists, Taoists, atheists, Jews, Unitarians, Orthodox Catholics and pagans. By learning more about their faiths, I’ve come to better understand my own Christian faith.
Being educated and being Christian are far from being mutually exclusive.
Whew…politics and religion really bring out the best and worst in people! Great job provoking thoughts!!!
I didn’t get the impression you were mocking. It seemed to me that you were saying that it’s a shame they’ve expressed themselves in a way that might be mocked by others because of grammar, that their efforts might actually make it LESS likely someone will turn to Christianity. The existance of the sign, of any sign or billboard, as a method of conversion to Christianity seems to be the point of frustration. I worry, like you, that putting up the signs may actually make others turn away from the exploration of Christianity.
Growing up in your area I know that when I see billboards telling me to pray or know God or whatever, no matter how correct the grammar is, it makes me groan. There’s something about mass advertising a religion that always makes me scowl. Like you, I might have already been thinking about God and enjoying the beauty of His creation when that sign blocked my view. The signs were something I had to overcome to become a Christian, something that I had to be willing to overlook when I decided to let my name be associated with the same thing as those signs. But then again, I hate billboards in general. They are always blocking the view and I could have found the McDonalds without it, thank you very much.
On the other hand, when I found other Christians who also hated the signs, it helped me to see that I could be both a sign-hater and a God-lover. Animosity towards the signs actually helped me bond with Christians. I wonder how the sign placers feel about that?
Great blog, as always. I’m glad you shared your thoughts.
It would seem that i’m a little late to the party. That said, I was just musing-shouldn’t it say “you’re forgiven” “thank God”? That works for me!