If I'm to be honest then I must confess that this is a difficult subject for me to talk about. It's not that I don't think symbolism is important, but I have become jaded by the way that I see many Christians use symbols to their own benefit. How many of us have seen a Christian business directory full of companies that will give us "a fair shake" because their owners attend the local congregation? Please don't get me wrong... it's fine for Christians to own and run businesses. And it's fine for them to do business with other Christians. But when a Christian holds out their own righteousness to others as a way to get customers then that seems to go against the message of the Gospel. I guess that saying that you're a sinner doesn't sell widgets.

Additionally, I was at one time involved with a group of Christians who very much advertised their Christianity as a means of evangelizing. Wanting to be a "good" Christian, I bought one of those Jesus fishes for my truck, though I never got around to putting it on. You see, before I could put it on I figured that I needed to clean up my driving a bit. I'm not very aggressive, but traffic is traffic and sometimes you have to squeeze in a bit. Anyway, after a couple of weeks I'm stressed because I'm not the model of perfection yet even though I've improved. Then one day I'm on the I-405 and I accidentally cut off a guy. I honestly did not see him. And I started to weep uncontrollably. How am I ever to put on this sticker if I'm not perfect?

My point here is that symbolism is a two-way street. When we show outward signs of being a Christian, I think that we should be asking ourselves if we are we doing it to God's glory, or are we doing it for our own benefit? In my case, I was trying to show others my own righteousness in hopes that they would want to "join the club". Instead, God used the event to remind me that my hope is not in my own righteousness but rather in Christ's. I eventually threw out the sticker.