A man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman immediately hit her horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection with him.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a cell.

After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, “I’m very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, waving your fist at the guy off in front of you, and swearing at him. I noticed the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder, the ‘What Would Jesus Do’ bumper sticker, the ‘Follow Me to Sunday School’ bumper sticker and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.”

Ouch! We are often eager to communicate our faith by putting cute little bumper stickers on our cars or by wearing jewelry that contains Christian imagery. And there's nothing wrong with that unless we think that the bumper sticker and jewelry can serve as a substitute for actually living a Christ-like life. Few people will be converted by a bumper sticker. But people WILL be impacted (and perhaps eventually changed) by a lifestyle that seeks to put God’s Word into practice. And, just as surely, people will be repulsed by a religion that allows the hypocrisy of talking about God without the desire to live for God.

“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him.....Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works” (James 2:14, 18).

May Christ shine through you in what you do and what you say today (whether you have a bumper sticker or not).