The dating site and God.

The dating site and God.

One of my neighbors is selling his home for around $200,000. Once I’ve made my Christian author millions, that won’t seem like a lot of money, but for now it’s the equivalent of one billion dollars. In preparation for selling his house he created his own for sale sign.

Instead of going with an agent and getting something large and noticeable he went with the kind of black and orange sign usually placed on ten speed bikes that are for sale. He attached it to a piece of scrap wood and jammed it into his front yard. Overall, the sign leads you to believe his house is worth roughly $17.

Since the market is tough though, he decided to add some flair to his sign. How you ask? By attaching his little sign to a much larger sign for Alpharetta-Singles.com. They’re all over some busy intersections near our neighborhood so stealing one was probably easy. Then he just duck taped his sign to the new one and voila, give him $200,000.

That guy isn’t the smartest person in my neighborhood, because the quality of his sign clearly represents the quality of his house. Can’t you see him “fixing” the toilet problem inside with some duck tape and a coffee liner? If he’s going to cut corners with the sign, who’s to say he hasn’t cut corners with every other part of his home? Trying with such a lack of effort is particularly stupid considering that 300 feet from his house they’re putting up new homes. That developer is constantly creating big, bold signs that make you desperate to live in the new community. Yesterday I saw a sign about the pool they’re putting in and it had one of those mushroom type waterfall umbrellas that kids can play under. I cried a little at how inadequate our community pool suddenly felt.

That’s perhaps my greatest fear with the book I am writing. I’m a bit terrified that I’ll create the book equivalent of a for sale message taped to a dating sign. That I’ll creatively under represent how big and amazing and loving God is to me. That people that don’t know God will see the book and think, “See, I knew God sucked, look how sucktacular this book is.”

But then, that’s the temptation we each face every day in the way we live our lives, isn’t it? My friend Kris practices Daoism. I’m pretty sure he’d be a Christian except he once spent a lot of time around some Christians. They were mean to him and hated him for his long hair and outside the lines taste in music. They had a really poor sign out on the front lawn of their lives and after he saw it, he decided that he’d explore Daoism instead. He’s got a full sleeve tattoo from a poem about Daoism. He’s a believer, the sign on his lawn is pretty cool, but it’s not what it could be because he ran into some people that didn’t put much thought into what their lives said about the Lord.

What’s on your lawn today? Got a picture of a pool and a rolling field that makes people curious about what’s going on in your community? Or is the duck tape fading on a sign that says God is worth about $17?