"A Sign From God is Coming Soon"

Driving to Tomball tonight (Tomball is roughly on the other side of nowhere, but I go there fairly often) I passed a church... well.. passed a lot of churches, but this one frightened me a bit. To get to Tomball you have to drive north of Houston into Spring, which is a decent enough suburb, and then hang a left and drive waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out, through a lot of countryside and through some little "old town" areas. Kinda sorta country, or at least what passes for it when you're still within the orbit of the fourth largest city in the US. And as I pass this one church, its billboard read, "A Sign From God is Coming Soon."

So anyway... I guess part of what made it creep me out, is that I've been reading a book about Stephen King, and particularly his earlier works. The book itself was published in the early 80s, and so far we've dealt with a lot of short stories, as well as classics like Cujo, Carrie, The Shining, and The Stand. So what, might you ask, does this have to do with the sign on the church? Well, at least one of the short stories that gets its own chapter, is rather apocalyptic, as is The Stand. And, as anything apocalyptic, there are some interesting social observations about religion there. And religious people scare me a little. Or at least, the apocalyptic ones do.

Follow me?

I guess it's just the idea that "a sign from God is coming soon"... seems rather ominous. On the one hand, signs from God come to me all the time. On the other hand, I suspect they're talking about something on a whole other level. Haven't we had enough of the signs from God? Really? I mean, 2005 was kind of a brutal, apocalyptic year, wasn't it? Exactly what more does He have to say?!?!?