Description with a Shirt

Phil’s wedding went awesome. I’ll have pics up soon. I’m now back from Halifax. The car made it!!!! WOO HOOOOO!!!! On to some more useless thinking.

Have you noticed that a lot of people (myself included) love to walk around with name brand t-shirts. Usually people will pick a brand that connects them to who they are. They will wear Quicksilver or Billabong if you are the poser surf kid (cause let’s be honest, no one surfs around here). Zero if you’re into skateboarding. Nike and Adidas for sports. Guess and Tommy Hilfiger for jock. Fubu and Exco for overly cool gangsters. We wear band shirts to show who we like or we wear shirts to make a statement. Some of us wear clothes that are tight to show off what we have. Some where clothes to hide what we have. Some don’t wear clothes at all.

I just think it is amazing at the lengths we will go to, to make a statement about who we are. It’s not just with shirts that we wear. It’s with everything we have mostly too. The car we drive, the house we have, the job we have, the girlfriend we have, the way we walk, the people we associate with, the people we don’t associate with, the make-up we wear, the products we buy are all things that a lot of us do trying to make a statement or trying to live up to a statement that has already been made.

Things would probably be a lot different if they stopped caring about others people’s standards and opinions. I used to make fun of old people because they just never cared what they looked like. Some have no style. My dad comes to my best friends wedding with jeans and a tucked in blue t-shirt. Now I look at people like that and think that they have something that I don’t. Why do I have a longing to make people think that I am a certain way? When I go out to church events I like to wear my Legalism Rules shirt because it let’s people know that I love making fun of legalistic thoughts. When I go to the bar, I usually wear a band t-shirt. If I am in front of people I will wear jeans and a tighter black t-shirt. If I am hanging out with a girl, I’ll wear whatever I think she’ll like the best. If I’m going to church I’ll wear track pants (if I was allowed) just to make a statement that I’m a rebel and I don’t care about dumb rules.

I don’t like how clothing labels and styles can represent who I am. Obviously they don’t do a very good job. I want to get to a point where only Christ represents me. I don’t need to turn to my style, my walk or my clothes to try and give an accurate description to people who walk by. Instead I can be confident in the label that Christ has given me, and be content with knowing that, instead of trying to prove myself to everyone.