recently shared an urban freeway with a large sport utility vehicle. I noticed, as the SUV pulled away, several Christian fish symbols on the bumper. There were two large and four smaller fish, suggesting a family. It was unfortunate I saw these symbols of Christianity in this context.

You see, the SUV had just passed me, finally, having spent several miles practicing NASCAR drafting procedures about three inches off of my rear bumper. I wasn't aware the driver wanted the exact space I was in until the vehicle, having failed to occupy this space from the rear, laid claim to the space from the side.

Although I drive a large one-ton pickup and feel I could have held my own in the battle for that space, I chose to concede to the SUV and watched as it sped away, giving me a nice view of the Christian symbols.

Was the driver a Christian proudly displaying faith with symbols but not with actions? Or perhaps this was someone who marked the SUV with Christian symbols as signs of victory, much like fighter pilots of old painted a symbol on their planes to depict those they defeated in combat - because I could easily envision this vehicle mowing down a family of Christians.

For several days, throughout my commute of 65 miles each way, I observed symbols. I paid attention, once I spotted a bumper sticker, to the driving style of the people in vehicles sporting the statement of faith. I don't really know why I did this and can only hope to explain it by saying that I have a Ph.D and this was just a microcosm of research, albeit not scientifically conducted.

The results of my highway faith symbol study, sadly, seem to indicate that most individuals who felt the need to express their faith on their car didn't express their faith with their car.

I even ascertained several church names prominently displayed on bumper stickers. I know a church is not responsible for the way its members portray it, but I hope not to see the name of my church on cars driven as aggressively as I witnessed during my study.

Finally, I wonder if the driver of one particular car, a cute little red one, told God to hold on when he slammed on the brakes at 70 mph on a busy freeway just because the truck behind him was practicing that maneuver. That cute little car had a cute little bumper sticker that read "God is my co-pilot." It certainly wasn't evident by the driving, so that must be why we need a bumper sticker to let us know about the co-pilot. And the truck? You guessed it - biggest fish symbol in all my observations.

While there is nothing wrong with expressing our faith through applying symbols to our vehicles, do we not send the opposite message to those around us when we aren't demonstrating what that symbology truly represents?

What if a person today, who notices a difference between your symbolic and your demonstrated Christian profession of faith, is someone who needs Christ brought to them?

Perhaps the fish symbol, with us from the time of the first Apostles, should be applied not to the bumper, but right in the center of the steering wheel - right where we can use it when we feel the urge to exhibit less than Christ-like behavior in traffic.

Jesus told us in John 13:35 what symbol we should use to identify ourselves with him: "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."