There was a bad accident on the road, just ahead. Ambulances and police on the scene, all cars shuffled one-by-one to a single lane to avoid the work and wreckage. As goes the usual etiquette, each of us allowed a single car into the right as traffic inched forward. On this particular morning, my husband and I sat as passengers, a close friend behind the wheel. Both of us jerked so hard our seat belts constricted as his palm slammed into the horn and every profanity listed in the Urban Dictionary tumbled from his swelling throat.

"HEY! ONE AT A TIME! What the H**'s WRONG WITH YOU??" He barked at the driver of the second car as she cut her way, out of turn, into the space he opened for the other. "HA!" His expression fell flat. "Of course...." Disgusted, our friend flung his hand toward the sticker stuck to the woman's bumper.

Warning:In case of Rapture, this car will be unmanned!

"We'd be better off!" He shouted, then looked only slightly apologetically in my direction. "See, Laura? This is why I don't go to church. Full of hypocritical #%^&*'s," my friend grumbled. "...No offense."

None taken, but lesson learned.

As Christians, we identify ourselves and work to share our faith in a lot of strange ways---some a little less effective than others. Passion is essential to letting our beliefs live and breathe, but too often that passion is expressed in suffocating ways which only bring an outcome opposite from what we hope to achieve as we confess our convictions with others. So many times, what we consider evangelism actually acts to turn people off from the spiritual beliefs we hold so dear.

Over the coming weeks, this blog will cover the top ten things to avoid while sharing our soul (today's listed, below):

The Ten Commandments of Christian Confession

10

Thou Shouldst Not Place Faith-based Bumper Stickers on Thy Car

The highway is a bad place to evangelize. None of us are perfect drivers, and road rage runs rampant not only in others, but ourselves. Even if you're a saint behind the wheel, never lifting a finger, refusing to surpass the speed limit, and religiously slowing on the yellow, there will always be reason for other drivers to become angry over what you're doing (or not doing). Even going slow can be viewed as offensive to some; and anytime another driver becomes angry with you, or you become angry with them, your sticker (as well-intended as it may be) will work more often to substantiate people's feelings of dejection toward the Christian faith and Christians as a whole.

Let your faith live; let it breathe; share yourself with care and consideration, always; and remember that evangelism is a conversation, not a one-way act of conversion. As we let our love for God show, we should be sure to let our love for others be just as apparent by being both respectful and understanding of where we each stand as we talk and open our hearts to one another.

In God's Love,
Rev. Laura H.
(Deer Park UMC, Bailey)