Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ… (Philippians 1:27, N.K.J.V.)

A man was sitting in his car at a red light one morning. When the light changed to green, the woman driving the car in front of him didn’t immediately start going. She was texting on her cell phone and didn’t notice the light change. Unfortunately, the light was a quick changing one that shot through yellow and turned to red again without her moving. This incensed the man, and he started yelling curse words at the woman and beating on his horn in disgust.

What he didn’t know was that a police officer, in an unmarked car, was sitting in the car behind him. The officer turned on his siren and lights, got out of his car, pulled out his gun, and carefully approached the man’s car. When the officer tapped on the driver-side window, the man said, “Hey, wait a minute, you can’t arrest me for yelling in my car and blowing my horn.” To that, the police officer had him step out of the car. Then the officer put handcuffs on the man, placed him in the back seat of the police car, called for the man’s car to be towed, and took him to the police station.

After the man had spent an hour in a holding cell, the arresting officer came in and said, “You’re free to go.” The man angrily replied, “I knew that you couldn’t arrest me for yelling in my own car and blowing the horn. I’m warning you, you haven’t heard the last of this.” In reply, the officer said, “I didn’t arrest you for shouting in your car. When I saw you screaming and laying down on your horn, I said to myself, ‘What sorry behavior.’ But there was nothing I could do about a man throwing a fit in his own car. That’s when I noticed the cross hanging from your rearview mirror and your “Jesus Is Coming Soon” bumper sticker and assumed that you must have stolen the car!”

Okay, okay, I’ll admit this story didn’t actually happen. Obviously, the officer would have asked for the guy’s driver’s license, ran the identification and license tag number through the in-car computer, and not arrested him. Still, though, the story makes a valid point. Christian, in little situations that crop up every day and night out there in the real world, is your conduct always worthy of the gospel of Christ? You see, you should be careful giving a little chuckle to this story about the irate driver because it just could be that you will need to heed its lesson sometime in the very near future!