Exercising Our First Amendment Rights...

I always knew that the First Amendment to the Constitution gives all Americans the right to freedom of the press, religion, speech, and peaceful assembly. But, I never dreamed that I would finally find the exact place in the Smokey Mountains that is set apart and sanctified for this very purpose! Last week, we stopped at the North Carolina/Tennessee border that is located at the top of the mountain. This is the traditional stop for just about every person that ever goes to the Smokey Mountains because it has bathrooms and it gives you a chance to recover from the car sickness you may have developed on the curvy road up.

Since Will had never been there, we thought it'd be a good time to stop and let him see the mountains, take a few pictures, and of course allow my pregnant wife to visit the restroom. While walking to the restroom, I noticed this sign and just new it was a blog post waiting to happen.


Signs like this are very peculiar to me and they make me wonder what the real story behind them could be. I imagine that at sometime in the past, someone felt their first amendment rights were violated so they "Made a Federal Case out of it", and obviously won. Their victory granted them the privilege to stand by this sign, erected in their honor, and express themselves in whatever way they felt led. As you can see, Will and I expressed ourselves in this shameless manner, while countless tourists filed by us, just wondering what the heck we were doing.

This sign makes me wonder if we sometimes wait for a certain location or time to express ourselves for the Lord? Over the past hundred years or so, our society has grown to believe that Church and Christianity is simply a "Sunday/Wednesday Thing". I'm pretty sure that if you were to walk up to a stranger on the street and ask them when do people go to Church, you'd get this answer. Even I grew up believing this way. That is, until I realized that God is too big to put in a box and drag out whenever it's "His" time, of which we have deemed to be between the hours of 6 and 8PM Wednesdays and 9 to 12AM Sundays.

These truths I know: God is too big to put in a box, We are on God's time and he is not on ours, and most importantly, Christianity is a lifestyle of worship that occurs every day, all day in everything we do.

So, if you go to Church on Wednesday and Sunday that's great! Keep it up!! Just realize that Church services are not the only times that are set aside for worshipping God. Church services are simply a time to come together with other Christians and celebrate the worship you have been doing all week long.