ThirstyFish

This is a photo of another billboard message at the St. Michael's Lutheran Church. In the earlier post, I had pointed out that some people found Church Billboard Messages to be annoying while others found them to be cute (even effective). While I liked the earlier message, I am not so impressed by this particular one.

The idea of "preparing or acting now before it is too late" has always been integral to human existence and survival. The message of the earlier post, "Don't wait for 6 men to take you to Church" is similar to that of the fable The Ant and the Grasshopper, but applied to spiritual preparedness and the concept of salvation.

In a general religious sense, especially in the Abrahamic Religions, preparedness is associated with freedom from the bondage of sin, and if accomplished, has the "guaranteed" outcome of obtaining salvation. In what we call life, being prepared does not "guarantee" certain outcomes but rather a higher probability of success or survival. In this sense, religious justice is linear (outcome is proportional to the input), whereas life is nonlinear, (and either indeterministic or, deterministic but chaotic). Linear concepts are more readily embraced both intellectually and emotionally because they are much easier to conceive and to accept.

Thank God that "No Cell Phone is Needed To Talk to God". Cell phone communication is compressed and delayed; words and sometimes whole calls are dropped. We end up guessing or filling in what the other side is saying and can only hope that they have understood us properly. Does that sound familiar?