<\/p>\n
I <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have been a Christian all of my adult life and yet, to date, I have never placed a fish symbol on my car. I guess I never really understood the underlying “witness” to displaying the symbol. I think of all the things I can’t do, or shouldn’t, based on the fact that I am…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","category-comedy","category-family-life","category-news-and-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nhave been a Christian all of my adult life and yet, to date, I have never
\nplaced a fish symbol on my car. I guess I never really understood the underlying
\n“witness” to displaying the symbol. I think of all the things I can’t do, or
\nshouldn’t, based on the fact that I am trumpeting to the world every time I get
\nin my car that I “AM A CHRISTIAN!!!YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW I CAN PROVE IT? CHECK
\nOUT MY FISH!!!”…. “You’ll have to look quick though cause I’m speeding.” Not
\nthat there is anything wrong with wanting to display your allegiance to your
\nfaith I suppose, but does it have to come with the cheese factor? Anytime a
\nreligious symbol becomes an adornment for a car in the same vein as a bumper
\nsticker I believe it loses some of the numinous in the translation. It’s too
\neasy. It is as though this establishes that I am a follower, not of Jesus so
\nmuch, but of trends. The fish has become de rigueur for the American Christian.
\nBut how often do we see it demonstrated in a way that sets you apart? Many sporters
\nof car fish still speed like everybody else, I see them flip the bird, cross
\nlanes without signaling and tailgate. If being a witness is our calling, then
\nnon-believers “witnessing” our lack of ethical uniqueness in driving, all the
\nwhile being “set apart” without demonstrating it other than we have conformed
\nto our subculture that teaches us witnessing isn’t who you are or how you live,
\nit’s wearing an “Eat at Joes” placard that somehow brings people to their knees
\nwhen our shadow passes over them. The original Icthus fish symbol used by the
\nearly church was actually a symbol to disguise the fact you were a follower of
\nthe Way. Only other Christians knew what it meant. This way they could safely
\nsignal each other without fear of reprisal from the culture that wanted them
\neliminated. It brought comfort to the believer in that they were able to
\ndiscover who it was that was journeying with them. Their obligation was to God
\nfirst and the tribe thereafter. It was a way to find your own and seek shelter
\n, companionship and comfort from those who would quite possibly be dead if they
\nwere discovered. In other words it was honorable. Often times the fish is used
\non a business card or yellow pages add. This way it is supposed to convince us
\nthat the service comes with the addition that the business is holy. I can’t
\ntell you how many stories I have heard of people getting crappy service from
\nthe Christian business, and then when confronted they pulled the ” can’t we all
\nget along ,brother” excuse for their incompetence. Listen my brethern, there
\nare enough believers out there, me at the forefront, that fail miserably at our
\nwitness. Is it too much to ask that we make less of a display of our faith
\nthrough symbols, and more of an introspection of our need for outward proof of
\nour piety through actually living it? The fish just adds too much pressure and
\ntoo easily “outs” us as the pathetic sinners we actually are. Maybe, just maybe
\nif we made it a point to drive the speed limit, signal everytime we change
\nlanes and always let others merge w\/o speeding up they might actually scratch
\ntheir heads and wonder “what kind of an unusual lad is this that treats a
\nstranger with respect, courtesy and dignity? Heck…we aren’t even neighbors?”<\/span><\/p>\n