On my drive home last night, I spied a bumper sticker on the car in front of me that said "Do Right: And Give the Consequences to God" and I immediately wondered what it meant. Like those ambiguous vanity license plates, I think a sticker on your car should be immediately identifiable and express something that the people driving behind you can understand. It shouldn't make you go into that puzzled expression where your nose scrunches and your eyes drift to the upper left and you suddenly find yourself dangerously near the curb.The "Do Right" I understood almost immediately. It's the "consequences" and "God" that had me near the curb.
I suppose it means that we are supposed to do the right thing and when the result is something good we are supposed to credit God with guiding our decision making process and the good thing is his doing, but that's a guess. It's a guess because doing the right thing does not always lead to a good result. We can do the right thing and have it backfire on us or make us look bad, in which case am I supposed to blame God for that? Is He a vengeful God that will smite thee at His will?
I think it assumes that doing the right thing will always lead to a good result, but those of us who have been screwed in the past know that it ain't necessarily so. That's what a lot of Christians want us to buy into - that the goodness of our deeds will lead to a good afterlife. It's a gamble because I know a lot of good people who "did right" and either didn't live long enough to enjoy the consequences or had their lives ruined by some random event that (I suppose) we are supposed to say is God's responsibility.
It's way too much thinking to do over a sticker on a car, but I feel strangely put off by the idea that somebody believes in that idea enough to put a sticker on their car.
I think it will make the car harder to sell later and probably peel the paint off trying to remove it.
I'd blame God.
And in the night
my father came to me,
and held me to his chest.
He said, "There's not much more that you can do.
Go on and get some rest."
And I said, "Yeah,
maybe I think too much."
- Paul Simon "Think Too Much"
4 comments:
I have a friend who says "Give it to God." Meaning do all you can and when it's out of your hands it's in the hands of God. I don't mind bumperstickers like the one you saw or the fish symbol...but bumperstickers in general i think make a persons car look trashy.
i dont like 'em. although i have a cling on sticker in my back window that is hardly visible since my windows are tinted and it's a black cling on that says "hello dorkass".
You are to give it to god and be faithful even when the bad things or as they call it 'the enemy' is throwing against you.
let me think... Do good and get shit on and still thank god? that takes a lot of faith and faithfulness is not for the bitter. this much i have concluded.
doing good is in the eye of the beholder any way.
xoxox
Hello dorkass is an idea I can get behind.
where is that picture taken?
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