bumper sticker beliefs

bumper sticker beliefs

This weekend, I saw a bumper sticker on a car that said, "My child eats bugs." There was a picture of a kitten on the sticker.

I think that sticker was supposed to tell me, the reader, "I love my cat so much she's like one of my children." Or maybe, "cats do the darnedest things, like eat bugs." But when I read it, I felt like it just told me, "Hey there, I'm a crazy cat lady."

Then I saw another one on a different car that said, "Garbage kills bears." I had no idea this was a problem in bear communities. I mean if I had seen the sticker, "Bears kill campers," I would not have been surprised. But I learned something new and for that I was grateful.

It got me thinking though, why do we put on bumper stickers? What makes us stick them to the back of our cars? I think we do that because we want to share some message with the people behind us. To say, "Hey stranger, I have placed the single most interesting thing I have to say about myself and my beliefs on the back of my vehicle for your reading pleasure. Enjoy." Or maybe we think they're funny or silly or vital. As we enter the election we'll certainly see a lot of stickers that are strongly in support of a certain political party. But even so, political stickers are still just another way to share a belief.

The question becomes then, as a Christian, what kind of sticker would I put on my car or more importantly my life? If I had one sentence to communicate with someone about the Lord, what would it be?

I'm not sure what I would put on my car, but one thing I wouldn't is any form of the "Got _____" sticker. It comes in a lot of varieties. Here are a few I've seen:

Got Jesus?
Got God?
Got Forgiveness?
Got Grace?
Got Prayer?

If you have one of those stickers on your car or a t-shirt that says the same thing, please don't take offense at the following sentences. My biggest challenge with this message is that I think it grossly fails to accurately and creatively represent the creator of the universe.

Imagine if the person that created this campaign tried to present it to God. Here's what I believe would follow:

Guy selling idea: "I've got that new idea that you wanted God. I think you'll love it."

God: "Great, lay it on me."

Guy selling idea: "We're going to make bumper stickers that millions of people that don't know who you are will see. They'll say 'Got God?' Brilliant right?"

God: "Wait a second, isn't that really similar to the 'Got Milk?' campaign?"

Guy selling idea: "It is, actually we just rewrote that campaign and made it about you."

God: "Really?"

Guy selling idea: "Really! What do you think?"

God: I gotta tell ya, that is weak. I mean honestly, I created the heavens and the earth. I breathed light into existence and made the Cayman Islands and the platypus. I invented creativity. Is rehashing a campaign about cow milk the best way to capture and reflect the glory of my name?"

Maybe that's not how it would happen. Maybe God is cool with having reheated second servings when it comes to our creativity. But I wouldn't do that for one of my earthly clients. For instance, I write for Home Depot. I wouldn't just steal a Lowe's campaign and tell them to run that. But we do it all the time with God.

None of this might matter. It's only a bumper sticker at the end of the day, but I think it's important. I think that God deserves our best. I think that if there is ever a time to be truly creative it's when we are creating art for God.

My confession is that sometimes I've fallen short in the posts I write. I've rewarmed old messages or rushed through ideas focusing on getting people to comment or just getting something online instead of trying to simply shine the brightest light possible on God.

For that I apologize. There's a lot of 2008 left and I hope that in the weeks and months and years ahead, I will never write the equivalent of "Got Jesus?" because you and God both deserve more.

This post goes well with:
1. When nougat is more meaningful than God.
2. The dating site and God.