Fashion Show

I was a fashion show to my sister last night. I bought nearly $2000 worth of stuff from sierra trading post, and I was getting the "that's hot" vs. "that's warm" vs. "that's ice cold"....so I ended up with only with $200 bucks worth of stuff, which was still a good deal...I think I'm addicted to Sierra Trading Post. That the owner is a christian is awesome as well!

It has gotten me thinking about clothes and what they mean. A couple of years ago, I didn't really care about what clothes I wore, as long as they were comfortable. Sure I didn't want to wear that nasty sweater, but I was a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy, and would wear them out till they had holes. I didn't mind this at all and I was fine just that way.

Now I am very concious of how I dress, whether or not I am dressing casual, or if the clothes that I guy are good clothes, trendy or fashionable. When did this start happening? I know that the first time was when my sister starting picking out clothes for me. She has good taste, and more importantly, I trust her. After a while, I got comments on how that shirt was nice, or those pants/shoes/article of clothing is good, or I get comments on how I look. (I just got a comment a week ago that said, "you look like a GQ model")

What is insidious about this, is that I start depending upon the clothes I wear as a sense of self-worth, that if I don't dress nice, or that I if I am wearing my ratty t-shirt and jeans, or whatever, that I'm not as attractive, or that I am not as wanted as if I did have these clothes. So here I am getting caught up with clothes as a mask upon myself, thinking that people will not talk to me unless I have the nice clothes on. What is more damaging is that when I wear nice clothes, I rely upon the clothes to talk, rather than my personality or skills. What I mean by this is that I don't put forth as much effort in listening or understanding in a conversation as I did before. I was always a good listener before, but now, especially when I am all "dolled" up, I tend to think, "this conversation isn't entertaining, I should go somewhere else..."

Or is this interest in dressing nice just part of growing up? I don't think so. My dad for sure doesn't care, and to some extent, my mom doesn't care either. So I can't say that as you mature, that you want to dress well. My brother dresses the same, and I pray that he will have the same attitude towards clothes that he has now. I know I do it for the acclaim of men, or more properly, the acclaim of women, if I'm honest with myself. If women didn't care so much for details and how you look, I would probably not dress the way that I do. Call me a metrosexual, but women did this to me!

Are clothes evil? well, at least the fashion industry is. It promotes that you are less adequete when you don't have the latest fashion, which has the effect of making us a bunch of sheep, looking for something that will gain compliments from others about how we look nice, or that shirt is nice. But that is not what we should be striving for! We should be striving for comments on CHARACTER, not CLOTHING. Who cares aboutt the comments that "you look nice"...you should be caring about the comments that "you really challenged me in the way that you kept your integrity at the store." That is a comment that is worth something. How much time do I spend looking at catalogs, determining what is a good buy and what is a nice shirt to have? Shouldn't I spend some time working on attaining the fruits of the Spirit? love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Aren't these things the things that last? Moth and dust will ravage the clothes, but character is what remains.

Speaking of character, what does it mean to be faithful? To be steadfast? Is it a clinging onto a purpose that may have lost it's way? I wonder how steadfast I have been in the last year.