Read Me Please - [Sharon]

I just got back from Publix. I went there to get one thing only - soy butter. Yes, I know, many of you would find that repugnant, but I don't actually care, so I'll get on with my thoughts.

As I pulled up in the parking lot, I looked up to see a car parked in front of mine with the words "I SMELL A HATER" emblazoned across the windshield. It got me wondering: what exactly is the obsession we humans have with announcing to the world some propaganda that is near and dear to our hearts?

I mean, I'm just as guilty as the next obnoxious American. I, of course, feel some internal desire to force people driving near me to know the bands I am currently enamored with. I have also been known to tout record labels, and in my younger, YOUNGER years, I actually announced that trite refuse, "If You Love Something, Set It Free..." You know the rest, I won't be so cruel as to make you read it again.

Anyway, I've actually wondered about myself for some time. (About a lot of things, yes, but right now I'm talking specifically about this thing.) Is it just "supporting the bands?" I don't think it is. Is it that I want other fans of said bands to give the knowing nod as they drive by? The little thumbs up? Nope. Not it. So what is it? What is the compulsion?

I guess I've pared it down to this: I think we live in a society where we drive past each other so much more often than we are ever able to know each other, that we are trying, in that brief second of the drive-by, to let other people know who we are. It's sortof a last ditch attempt to introduce ourselves, even as we are just as quickly excusing ourselves by going our separate ways. So we try to choose something brief and to the point, that we feel tells other people something REALLY important about what makes us who we are. We are trying to let others know we are there. That we have something different about us. Or the same about us...depending upon who happens to be in the next car.

So I guess if there is any truth to the hypothesis, then let the worrying begin about the person who seems to have the olfactory ability to locate people who suck. Also about the person sporting the announcement pictured above. One that I actually really liked said, "I'm out of bed and dressed - What more do you want?" And I thought about leaving my phone number on the car of one which said "I like poetry, long walks on the beach, and poking dead things with a stick." Sounds like a first rate date, right?

Unfortunately, I also saw one that I feel tempted to put on my own car. It simply said, "God save us - from your followers." Huh.

If the girl in the car hadn't just been driving by, I would have loved to talk to her for a bit. But at least I know something REALLY important about what makes her who she is: That she intensely desires to know the real Jesus. And so far, we haven't introduced Him to her.