Monday, September 26, 2005

Stickers and salvation

There’s a car parked in the Cellar lot with a sticker on it that reads “When Judgment Day comes, you’ll wish you had a Jesus sticker.” Wow. Words fail me. I’m no Bible scholar, but I’m pretty sure Romans 10:13 doesn’t go, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord and affixes the appropriate bumper sticker to his/her vehicle will be saved.”

On Thursday, I had the refreshing experience of attending Campus Crusade at nearby Ball State University. At Taylor, “fellowship and Christian community” is an everyday expectation. All one needs to do to be surrounded by fellow believers is get out of bed. It’s easy to take common worldview for granted at Taylor, so I think it’s a good thing to burst the Bubble once in a while and be enveloped by a world where such an expectation does not exist. It’s healthy to have to seek out Christian community and be challenged by a world that disagrees.

I don’t know which girl owns the asinine bumper sticker in the Cellar lot, but I have to wonder how many people she’s encountered that don’t share her worldview. I doubt that she honestly believes that car logos could lead to exclusion from the Kingdom of God, but that’s certainly what the sticker communicates. I also have to wonder how many non-Christians have seen that sticker and thought, “Wow, I want to have Jesus in my life!” More likely, they scoffed and sneered at this misrepresentation of Christ’s gift of salvation.

2 comments:

Joanna said...

I've seen that same bumper sticker around campus and thought the same thing. Faith is not about being in Evangelical Christian subculture, having the right bumper sticker, slogan t-shirt, Christian pop music, or the like. The bumper sticker decidedly annoyed me.
I've been to Crusade at Ball State as well, and, you're right, it's different than chapel. Our peers there struggle with different things than we do, being outside the Bubble. I appreciate the different views I hear from my friends at Ball State. It 'sharpens' me, I suppose, otherwise I get lazy, go unchallenged, and take my faith for granted. I participate in/administer a blog/discussion website with mostly Ball State students (Juxtaposition Virus) where I 'get out of the bubble'. I love it.

Megan said...

Thanks for your thoughts, Joanna. I hope to see you at Cru sometime if you still go. I like seeing you in random Indiana cities. :)