The Bible in the Back Seat

    My place of employment (one of the two) offers me the unusual opportunity to see in people's backseats and trunks on a daily basis (we sell bottled water and salt, which I sometimes load into customers' cars).  Besides the expected junk, things like clothing, sports equipment, and other oddities, I often spot Bibles in these cars.  Now, before I proceed any further, let me mention that I work in Green, Ohio, which, as with Northeastern Ohio as a whole, is pretty religious, Roman Catholicism being especially strong, so Bibles are not exactly unexpected.  Let's proceed.  These Bibles are usually lying placidly on the backseat or hiding in the seat pockets, that is, they're usually somewhere that does get much attention.  When I first started working at this employer (five long years ago), I had a wide array of reactions to seeing these Bibles.  Sometimes I was surprised, like, "They have a Bible in their car?"  Sometimes there was no surprise at all.  After all, many of our customers are open about their faith and discuss it explicitly.  Many of our customers shop with us because they know we are a Christian company.  My initial reaction upon seeing these Bibles was usually that of being pleasantly surprised.  "Oh, they must be Christians," I thought.  That reaction has since worn off.  

    As the years have passed and I have seen most of these Bibles gather dust, I have begun to wonder what it really means to have a Bible in your back seat.  Why have a Bible in your car if it is literally going to sit in the same exact spot for half a decade?  I've come to understand that having a Bible in your back seat means about as much as having a cross hanging from your neck or a Bible verse tattooed on your forearm--not much.  It means you own a Bible.  It means you want to feel like a Christian.  It means that you probably grew up in a religious family and/or culture.  You feel like having a Bible is a good thing.  

    Now, I don't really know most of our customers.  I can't speak to their general religious practices or lifestyles.  Many of these folks might have other Bibles that are marked and worn from use.  Maybe they just don't use antiquated paper anymore, preferring swiping through screens over hearing that beautiful, crisp sound of pages flipping.  I don't want to paint too broad of strokes here, and yet, an unused Bible in the back seat has sort of become a symbol for me.  It is the perfect picture of nominal Christianity.  The Bible doesn't affect our lives in any tangible or quantifiable way, but we still like to have one around so that we can feel religious.  We don't actually know what the Bible says (as study after study has shown), but we want the option of reading it if we ever need an emotional pick-me-up.  

    This is sort of a sore issue because I was that guy for a while.  My '89 Corsica (boy, was she a beaut!) always had a Bible in the backseat.  You might have to rummage through the fast food rappers and clothes to find it, but it was always there.  In fact, the cold/heat eventually destroyed the binding because I never removed it from the car.  That was a spiritually lean period in my life.  Entertainment and other hedonistic endeavors far outweighed the time and energy I invested in God's Word.  There was a direct correlation between that Bible wasting away in my back seat and my behavior failing to adhere to Biblical standards.  One of the most significant points in my life was when I bought a new Bible, not simply because I began to read it, but because it signaled the shift in my priorities that God had already begun to cause.

    It's not a bad thing to keep a Bible in your car.  In fact, it's a good thing.  However, confessing Christians need to go beyond that.  We  need to have our noses in the Bible and the Bible in our hearts.  The Bible should define who we are and how we lead our lives.  Our behavior and priorities should conform to God's immutable standards.  Only then will this pandemic of nominal Christianity be countered.