Warning Signs

We all have a choice. We can notice the lights are flashing and fish off the shore, or we can ignore it and get in the boat. Whether the system in place to send warnings is 100% accurate or not, can only be debated by the experts who hopefully were raised by fishermen, who themselves sailed safely for many years before the systems were in place, and were well versed in the warning signs in nature and passed them on. I'm not, I'll listen to the sign.

My stomach gives me warning signs. I'm blessed with a system that is very sensitive to negative, critical thought. It tells me instantly when I've become anxious, angry, fearful or impatient. I'm grateful for the ability to pay attention and redirect my thoughts when the stomach pumps out a spontaneous bit of acid via a burst of adrenalin. It does that when I eat half a bag of chocolate chips too. Warning signs, gotta love 'em.

Recently, I was asking the Maker of heaven and earth, what He wanted me to notice about a couple of the short books in the Old Testament of the Bible, each having titles that matched the name of the one who said what was written within, like Haggai and Zechariah. I've heard sermons that tell me things about them, but my heart wasn't very interested in knowing much about them, so I asked the God of heaven and earth...why do I need to read this? Soon after, I was reading a book loaned to me, called Return to Me by Lynn Austin. It's an historical novel, and in it, I got to know several "characters" and learned of some warning signs that I had heard of before, but now I was engaged with a story and my imagination was able to enter the scene more personally, and I felt as if I sat among the characters and listened to their conversations and realized they were people just like me. They had similar struggles and ethical dilemmas. They were helping me understand some things from the past. Then, I read the books of Haggai and Zechariah, and there were my characters...and there the warnings. They suddenly made more sense and became much more interesting to me. I appreciate that when God gives warnings, He's willing to answer our questions when they're sincere.

Suddenly, things don't seem so unrelated. Warnings matter, all kinds of warnings do. We're usually given some time to listen to them, but eventually, if we talk someone to getting in a boat with us, ignoring the warning signs, we may be taking them down too. The boat just might sink.

Warnings are good things. Even though the skies were blue and the clouds were gone, the sea was still very choppy. Looks really can be deceiving.