Bumper Sticker Train of Thought...

"I like your Christ.

I do not like your Christians.

Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

~Ghandi

This weekend, I was sitting at a stoplight and I read the above quote off a bumper sticker on someones car. Another bumper sticker read "Doing my best to tick off the religious right."

I felt such a profound feeling of sadness. I can't really explain it. I almost wanted to catch the attention of the driver and give them a wave that said "Hey, not all Christians are bad- some of them strive to be like just like Christ!" My mind then began to wander (not at all odd for me!) and I began to earnestly think of what must have happened to this person for them to dislike Christians so much. But then maybe they were a Christian them self and just didn't want to be labeled among the Christians who may mean well, but actually turn people off through religious practice, and not being and doing what Christ was and did.

"Religion is man trying to build a bridge to God, Jesus Christ is God's way of building a bridge to man."--one of my all time favorite quotes, I actually heard on an Out of Eden cd when I was 13. There are probably millions of people who would express agreement with the sentiment stated on the bumper sticker I read. To some degree, I even can empathize. Modern day Christianity, I imagine may be unrecognizable to Jesus. In its truest and purest form, the Christianity that Jesus taught and lived wasn't about practice, legalistic rules, luke-warmness, hypocrisy, convenience or any of the other adjectives most people may associate with Christians now days. To Jesus, it was all about heart. relationship. desire to do better, to be better. Teaching the world there is a better way, that purity of life is not something that makes you too "religious" but that it's something that comes from understanding what this life is all about. And that is simply to love. If we as Christians were able to show true love, which is unconditional and agressive, love that never gives up, perhaps Ghandi's quote would not strike a cord with so many people.