Church Signs

Spotted in a small town in Michigan today:

If you give the devil an inch and he’ll be the ruler.

Which got me thinking: obviously, this sort of church sign proceeds from a theology where the devil is so very powerful and so very feared that any possible contact with anything that could be even a bit messed up by evil (i.e. “worldliness”) must be completely avoided. In order to be a good Christian, you have to avoid the world, and commit completely and totally to God.

Now, I have no problem with the idea of committing completely and totally to God. But, flawed as we humans are, we don’t always manage total commitment

But, if we believe that God is ultimately more powerful that evil, shouldn’t we turn that saying around:

Give God an inch and God will be the ruler.

Because, whatever we can possibly manage to give over to God, I have to believe that god will take complete control of that little piece and try to get ahold of as much of our lives as possible.