Jeans.
I showed up to preach last Sunday in jeans. One of my friends commented that I had worn jeans at the Global Leadership Summit, for whom our church is a satellite site. It must have been okay because some of the speakers who were communicating to about 75,000 people (live and via satellite) were wearing...you guessed it...jeans.
Our church has a ministry partnership in the Dominican Republic. I once heard that jeans can be quite expensive there and are a sign of affluence to them. To us, they just feel more relaxed than slacks or dresses so we like to wear them.
But, have you noticed (I know you have!) the many varieties of jeans these days? When I was a kid, we called them "Levi's" for a good reason; that's all we had. Then, someone came along wearing "Lee" jeans and the denim war was on. Fast forward to now and we don't just have brand wars, we have style and color wars. We have long since lost our amazement that "stone-washed" jeans -- jeans which have traded their trademark blue for something near white and come from the store full of holes -- are more expensive than ones made with brand new material.
But the jeans phenomenon that really gets me is the fashion swing back and forth between "relaxed fit jeans" and "skinny jeans." Let's be honest with each other. We have seen people in skinny jeans that should never wear anything skinny. And we have seen very petite people swallowed up in relaxed fit jeans. Wouldn't it be better if people just wore jeans that fit them? Couldn't we leave style out of the equation for a minute and use our obviously generous jeans-buying resources to wear something that fits us?
All of this brings to to an important point about the way God made us. We each have a divine design. We are unique; some of us may be "uniquer" than most, but God designed us intentionally with great hope and intent. One of the tragedies for those who follow Christ is to think we serve a "one size fits all" God. If He designed us as a "relaxed fit" person in the spiritual realm and we insist on cramming our life into "skinny jeans", we will end up less than comfortable and far less productive than He had hoped. The key is to discover our design.
Discovery can be a journey that takes years, but every time we get a little closer to the perfect fit, we end up with more joy.
Is it time for you to have a spiritual garage sale and let go of those of those old jeans? If they don't fit you, why not let them go? Don't spend your life wishing God had given you a different design. Letting go of the old opens the door to discover the truth. It will set you free!
We will talk about God's design this weekend at Stone Ridge. If you come, feel free to wear jeans...that fit.
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