There is a story of one Christian man, a deacon and very involved in his church, who was sitting in traffic and late for work. His car was plastered with bumper stickers that read, “Honk if you love Jesus!” and “Jesus is my hero!”
He had already sat through three red lights, and the lady in front of him was talking on her cell phone and trying to apply mascara all at the same time. When the light turned green, she wasn’t paying attention, and continued to sit at a stand still, holding up traffic.
The man began honking, shouting from inside his car, and shaking his fists at the lady to move on. Finally, after traffic began to creep forward, the man noticed red and blue flashing lights behind him. As he pulled over and rolled down his window to greet the officer, he said, “What did I do wrong? I’m late for work, and you’re holding me up!”
The officer responded, “Sir, is this your car?”
The puzzled man growled back, “Yes! Who else do you think it belongs to?”
The policeman replied, “Well, when I saw the bumper stickers on the back of your car and the way you were acting back there, I thought the car must be stolen!”
I’ve read this story many times before, but here’s something that you might not have thought about– How should we respond to a situation like this? Most people assume that the best course of action would be to remove the bumper stickers, but is that really the answer? I don’t think so. Instead of changing the stickers we need to change our attitude. Removing the bumper sticker doesn’t remove the problem. That just deals with the fruit of the problem. We need to get to the root of the problem, which is a change of our behavior. The daily devotional “Senior Living” gives this good advice:
It’s easy for us to become frustrated and impatient with the world. But, many of us often come too close to tarnishing our witness for Jesus because of our words and deeds. Decide to put on the full armor of God each morning in prayer and God’s Word, so others will see Jesus in you. Ask God to help make you a shining witness of His love, kindness, and gentle spirit each day as you interact with those who don’t know Him.
