Thought of the Day 01.18.10

Although I live in Phoenix, I’m still from St. Louis, where we love our baseball team. Well, the other day I was driving past an SUV with a Cardinals hitch cover, and I got so excited. Here was a fellow fan, and all I wanted to do was connect with him somehow. Should I honk? Should I wave? We don’t have a universal gang sign, so I wound up doing nothing. But I really wanted to connect with this stranger who I knew shared and would understand my enthusiasm. Unfortunately for me, that response looks an awful lot like idolatry.

I mean, when I see Christian symbols on cars, it doesn’t give me anywhere near the sense of solidarity this did. So what explains this difference? Well, it could be I love the Cardinals too much. It could also be that I don’t love Christ nearly enough. Or it could just be the rarity of such an encounter. When I’m in St. Louis, I don’t have any such impulse, and if I were in a place where few people were Christians, I think I’d be much more excited to find one.

In reality, it’s probably a blend of all three. But the good news is that only someone who knows he’s truly accepted in Christ would be secure enough to understand and admit such flaws.