Do You Three Throw?

Probably not.  Because you probably don’t even know what it is.  But visit this website, and you will.  It’s the cool new Christian handsign.  Yes, I’m serious.  Here’s an actual news article about it – which reads like something from a parody site, but is sadly very true.

Why do we need a Christian hand sign, you ask?  Good question.  Here’s a quote from the news article to explain:

Senior pastor Craig Conner of First Baptist Church, Panama City, said, “Mark has given the body of Christ a simple, yet meaningful symbol for encouraging one another as we are walking in the world. A simple ‘three throw’ reminds us who we are and challenges us to fight the good fight of faith.”

I’m not real clear how a hand sign challenges us to “fight the good fight of faith” myself.  And if we need to identify ourselves as Christians, I’m not sure of many instances where we can’t just talk about it in the first place.  But there is one other reason for the hand sign:

He hopes the symbol can also stir the curiosity of non-believers and act as a convenient icebreaker for those outside the Christian community to ask questions and create dialogue.

I imagine the question going something like this: “Hey man, why are you doing that weird thing with your hand?”

This is what ultimately bothers me about this whole thing.  The guy who created this has good intentions.  He’s trying to do good, I’m quite sure.  He clearly has a desire to share his faith with others.  But creating silly hand signs isn’t going to help.  We share our faith by living a life that makes people want to know why we live that way.  By living how God calls us to live.  By having compassion and grace for other people, in a way that is different from the rest of the people around them.  Living those kinds of lives are what create space for conversation about our faith – not doing strange things with our hands.  In the words of John Ortberg:

“If we can’t be holy, shouldn’t we at least be weird?”