Here’s your sign …

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

My wife and I had been married for a little over a year when she got me tickets for my birthday for her and me to go see comedian Jeff Foxworthy perform at the Orpheum in Memphis.

This was right at the apex of his meteoric rise to the top of the stand-up comedy world thanks to his whole “You be a redneck …” deal. You remember, right. Lines like, “If you own a small TV that works that sits on top of a bigger TV that doesn’t work, you might be a redneck.” Or, “If you’re brother buys a new house and you go over to help him take the wheels off, you might be a redneck.”

Sure, it wears a little thin after a while, but ol’ Jeff was able to turn those redneck jokes into millions of dollars, comedy specials, his own TV shows and an empire of redneck-themed merchandise, so good for him. Eventually, he was popular enough that he gathered a troupe of like-minded funny fellows and they went all over America as the “Blue Collar Comedy Tour.” This is where we got Larry the Cable Guy, for better or for worse, as well as the very funny Ron White.

It’s also where Bill Engvall. Like Foxworthy, Bill was a good ol’ Southern boy, with a folksy delivery. Those guys really stood out against the typical angry New Yorker or laid-back California comedians that were the norm at the time, so I appreciated their work. Well, also like Foxworthy, Engvall’s act also largely consisted of a single gimmick. But whereas Foxworthy had his redneck humor, Engvall’s signature routine was a deal where “stupid people ought to have to wear a sign.”

Like if someone walks up to you while you’ve got your car jacked up and your spare tire leaning up against it and they ask, “Got a flat tire?” Then you get to say something witty like, “Nope, just practicing for my NASCAR pit crew tryout … Here’s your sign.” Or if you’ve got a deer head mounted above your fireplace and someone asks, “Did you shoot that buck?” You can reply, “No, crazy thing … he just crashed through the wall there and got stuck. Here’s your sign.”

Now, I said all of that to tell you this (which is a line I stole from the aforementioned Ron White and use all the time). Right now, in my Sunday school class, we are in the middle of a unit titled, “All Signs Point to Jesus.” It’s all about Jesus’s ministry and it’s leading up to the upcoming Easter celebration, which isn’t until April 20th this year, which is about as late as I remember Easter ever being.

Anyway, the idea, at least as I am understanding here in the first few lessons, is that back in the day, the Jewish people were waiting for the Messiah, and they were looking for a sign from God that would herald his arrival. And along the way, this guy Jesus began fulfilling all of these prophecies and performing all of these great works and everything was basically screaming, “This is the Messiah!”

But even then, there were plenty of people who just refused to accept this idea. Unfortunately, Bill Engvall wasn’t there in Jerusalem to say, “Here’s your sign.” Instead, many who actually witnessed Jesus in the flesh denied who he was, including many of the Jewish leadership.

All of this reminds me of a funny sign that the Missouri Street Church of Christ had out on their bulletin board many years ago. It said, “Looking for a sign? Here it is… Go to church.” Simple but effective. I wonder if that actually inspired anyone to decide to go to church? I mean, even if one person saw that and said, “You know what? I’m going!” Then it was worth it.

Now, here we are in 2025. And man, I’ve got to say, it seems like we’ve got a bunch of people who could use one of Mr. Engvall’s signs. But here’s the thing… what can we believe these days? We have been programmed to be doubtful, suspicious, unsure about what the truth actually is. I might be looking for a sign, but if I see one, will I be willing to act on it?

Here’s how ingrained we are to be unwilling to see what we don’t want to see. I bet if Jesus came back right now and appeared in the sky, a good half of the people on the planet would just say it was CGI, AI or some other kind of special effect.

Maybe religion isn’t your thing. I get that. But if you’re out there looking for answers, looking for a place to plug in, looking for, well, a sign that it’s time to take a step in getting your life on the right track, these next few weeks leading up to Easter are a great time to get that ball rolling.

And if you know you need to do something but you refuse to take action … well, here’s your sign.