Orange Cones

Orange Traffic Cones are everywhere. As you drive around you see them being used for all kinds of reasons and functions. The city uses them to mark lane closures or detours. The police and the department of public safety use them to warn drivers that a wreck is up ahead and you should move to the next lane. Construction workers use them to mark off an area where workers are so as to keep them safe from on coming traffic. I have often thought that I could park almost anyway if I just had a orange cone to set out beside my truck. As a matter of fact I have joking told my children to not buy a parking sticker for the university, but to rather buy an orange cone and park anywhere they need to park on campus. They of course never did that, but it would have been interesting to see someone try it.

When you think about it, the orange cones in of themselves have no power or control over anyone. A car or truck can easily drive around or over or through a cone. The power of an orange cone comes when those who are driving respect and honor what the cone or cones want them to do. When drivers respect and honor the cones then the needed or wanted desire is met and traffic flows where it needs to flow in order to keep workers or other drivers safe.

Orange cones are used for other things besides traffic control. You see them at sporting events being used to mark the boundary of a playing field. Sometimes people use orange cones to mark an area that is unsafe to walk such as a hole in the ground or a crack in a sidewalk. When you think about it the orange cone has been one the important inventions of our time. They are placed in our life to help keep us out of trouble, to give a direction, to save a place, to mark something important, to keep us out of the ditch or to keep us moving in the right direction. Where would we be without those Orange Cones?

As a Christ follower you have spiritual orange cones in your life too. They come in several different forms and they have many different functions, but the reason they are in your life is the same, to keep you safe and to keep you following Jesus. Some of these spiritual cones come in the form of people. God has placed people in your life to help you in your spiritual journey. They are there to give you encouragement as well as a push in the right direction when you need it. In a real way the Word of God is full of Orange Cone passages. You know those verses in the Bible that speak to you and give you hope, understanding, guidance and encouragement. Those are there to keep you moving in a direction towards spending eternity with God. Some of those passages are commandments and some are stories that enlighten you as to the nature of God.

The other spiritual cones in your life come in the form of the events that happen each and everyday. Everything that happens in your life happens for a reason. Maybe there is a lesson in life you need to learn. Maybe God wants you to experience something today that helps prepare you for something in your life five years from now.

As you read the Bible you see God working in the lives of faithful men and women preparing them for life events that help move people and nations into a relationship with God.

So pay close attention to those orange cones. They are put there for a reason and that reason might just change the course of history for you, your family and maybe, just maybe the world.

Love God. Go Love Others.