Jesus Fish

Yesterday one of my co-workers and I were driving back to the office after lunch when he noticed that the minivan in front of us had a Jesus fish on the back of it. He began talking about how he dislikes it when people wear their religion on their sleeve (or, in this case, their car). He said he'd much rather know that they are Christians by the way that they act rather than putting some symbol on their clothes or vehicle.

Now, I don't have any beef with people adorning their car with a Jesus fish or wearing a cross necklace or Christian t-shirt or any other symbol of their faith. But I can see my co-worker's point.

I once dated a guy who said he didn't want to put a Jesus fish on his car, because if he got mad in traffic and wanted to give someone the bird, it would look hypocritical. While I'd like to think that having a Jesus fish on my car would make me think twice about flipping someone off in traffic (not that I would, although I've been sorely tempted!), I suppose in retrospect at least this guy was up front about not wanting to be hypocritical. Certainly hypocrisy is a huge turn-off to non-believers.

The other day, Mike Cope had a posting on his blog that, among other things, discussed the point that Christians have earned a reputation for being among the worst customers and tippers at restaurants on Sundays. Sadly, many of us leave the church service on Sunday and find our joyful, loving attitude dissapating fast in the face of traffic, long lines at the grocery store, and less than perfect service at a restaurant. I know I've been guilty of that, many times.

My co-worker does not attend church on a regular basis, and I've invited him to visit my church on several occasions. But I think that instead of trying harder to get him to come to church, I'm going to try harder to live an authentic, imperfect Christian life before him and my co-workers. Of course I'm going to mess up and act un-Christian, but I can 'fess up more readily and admit my sinful actions and attitudes. I have a feeling that will make more of an impact.