What are You Wearing Today?

Are you familiar with the concept of an ear worm? Merriam-Webster defines this little bug as a song or melody that keeps repeating in one's mind, and we can all relate to this. I cannot tell you what I went upstairs for a few minutes minutes ago, but I can still sing you the original Diet Coke commercial in its entirety, which debuted in 1982 when I was 10 years old. (You're going to drink it just for the taste of it!) My distance-lane friend on the swim team and I used to try to hum the beginning of a song just before a big set, so our brains would have something to catch onto to break the monotony of the back and forth in the pool—preferably something with a little story to it (This here's a story about Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue...).

But the champion ear worm in my life has got to be a little ditty that someone, somewhere wrote for an ESL curriculum that our school district used in the early 1990's. I was teaching a wonderful class full of fourth graders, most of whom were indeed learning English as their second language, and the unit was about clothing. One fall day in 1994, my ear worm came in and has never left. That makes over thirty years that at least two or three times per week when I enter my closet to pick out my clothes for the day, here it comes...

What are you wearing today?
What are you wearing today?
What are you wearing, what are you wearing, what are you wearing today?

I've got my red dress on, I've got my red dress on, that's what I'm wearing today...


And on and on it goes! I don't suppose this ear worm will ever leave, but my attention was caught the other day when my husband and I were listening to our morning Bible selection, and we happened to be in the book of Colossians. It was a particular passage of chapter 3 that stuck out to me:
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Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

We live in a world that many would call post-Christian. This means that so many of us love the advantages of living in a civilization built upon Biblical principles, but too few have ever read the Bible for ourselves to understand how Jesus radically changed the pagan world. We also live in a culture that thinks it knows exactly what the Bible says and what Jesus taught, when, in fact, they do not. Too many assume they know what Jesus taught, though they have not listened to Him. We're not far away from a culture devoid of sound Biblical knowledge, which would be a lot like the world in which the Apostle Paul first wrote this letter.

The new believers in Colossae would have been mostly Gentile, and therefore life in the Messiah would have been a new concept to them, too. People there were putting their faith in Jesus, which is beautiful and wonderful! But this letter is to help the believers understand that if we're going to be followers of Jesus, His Spirit is going to make us more like Jesus and less like the world all the time. 

The Good News is that Jesus came and defeated death, hell, and the grave, making it possible for us to be with God, now and forever! This is truly amazing news, and His grace is fully sufficient for all of us. There is no list of do's and don'ts attached to His grace--all we have to do is believe Him. 

When we do believe Him, and when we begin to walk with Him, we're going to notice some things in our lives beginning to change. We're going to start caring about Him more and more, and we're going to start noticing that there are lots of other people around. We're going to notice that we are not the center of the universe, but Jesus is, and He is always loving and serving others. We might even notice that we begin to care about caring for others, too. 

So Paul instructs us...

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

That list of behaviors is so, so terrible and hurtful and repellant...and commonplace. If you're brave enough, just look at any social media for a moment for evidence. Since Jesus has made new life possible for us, let's all take that junk off and put on something new and beautiful and magnetic! And here we return to my ear worm--what are you wearing today? As a follower of Jesus, you have a choice. 
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Compassion - this word means to put yourself into someone else’s shoes, and to feel with and for someone else. Jesus had a lot to say about this, and reminded us many times to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Of course, this would be more difficult to do if you loathed yourself, and perhaps that is a thought for a future blog post. But the fact remains that most of us care very deeply for our own skins and our own feelings and our own reputations, and we would do so much better if we could remember that other people also have feelings and skins and reputations, and that God loves them just as much as He loves me. In one of the greatest plot twists of all time, Jesus also encourages us to love and pray for our enemies, making the list of people for whom we should not display compassion very short, indeed.


Kindness - have you ever been in a place of utter helplessness? Maybe something as simple as running out of gas on the side of a rural road with no services in sight. How wonderful it is when someone pulls up in their pickup truck with a gas can! Or maybe you were a little kid who forgot to bring his lunch—how wonderful it was for your friend to share his sandwich with you. Kindness has so much to do with sharing, doesn’t it? Sharing our resources, including time and money and possessions, sharing encouragement, sharing kind words, most of all sharing the love of Jesus Christ that was so lavishly shared with each of us by our good Father. in this world of cutthroat vengeance, a little bit of kindness goes such a long way.


Humility - there is so much wrapped up into this small word. We have also been listening to Proverbs each morning the last week or two, since that is just how our yearly Bible plan is falling, and Solomon had so much to say about humility. Most of the warning proverbs against a lack of wisdom, a lack of self control, or a lack of thoughtfulness are all wrapped up with a lack of humility. It is very difficult to watch a person who has no self-awareness, isn't it? Trying to blame everyone and everything else while failing to recognize one's own faults is quite pathetic, but a sad trap we are all in danger of falling into. This is where humility comes in. Allow me to point out again that Jesus talked about this so often: we need to love each other as we love ourselves. This means we must step down off the pedestal of thinking that we know better and are better, and realize that each person is made in God‘s image, not just me. Jesus died for me, yes, but he also died for my neighbor and for my enemy. Humility means understanding that I am not the center of the universe, Jesus is, and I can trust Him to set things right. I don’t need to take that mantle upon myself.


Gentleness - this word is often best understood in the confines of a nursery. Most of us intuitively grasp, or at least can learn, that the larger person must be so careful and tender with the smaller, helpless person. I love watching our daughter and son-in-law teach the older children to be so gentle around their baby sister. It is such a delight to watch a the older children learn to control their power so that their little baby sister will be safe. I think that gentleness is this controlled power. A gentle person is not a weak person at all; in fact, they are very strong, but have a wonderful grasp of self-control and a great esteem for the other person in the equation. A gentle person is one who graciously lays down their own strength for someone else. Gentleness is a strong person lifting up someone else in love and self-sacrifice.


Patience - it is so difficult to fully understand what patience means in our have-it-your-way culture. As I age, it is so strange to realize that the vast majority of the population right now is younger than me, and have no idea what it was like in my childhood or in my parents' and certainly my grandparents', especially if they never asked any questions or wanted to hear any stories from the people older than them. So I think it’s funny to remember the early '80s and how fascinated we all were by the VHS player, and the fact that you could watch a movie again anytime you wanted to, and not just have to wait for it to come out again in the theater someday. I remember how fascinated we all were by the microwave oven, and especially magical microwave popcorn, which seemed better since you did not have to heat up all that oil and make such a mess (though everyone knows now it is clearly not better!) But this is kind of pathetic because I'm a part of the first generation where fast-food culture began to erode everything that had come before. I would much rather remember the stories from my own grandmother's experience, as she was born in 1900 and really understood what it was like to live a life at a patient speed.

I was laughing with some friends the other day about the invention of the answering machine, another 1980s special. Before that you tried to call someone, and if it just kept ringing, you knew they weren’t available—try again later. Now we absolutely freak out if someone doesn’t text us back within five minutes! Patience is not a virtue that our society reveres, but it is something we can put on like a garment. We can trust God to someday make things make sense, to bring about justice, to hold each of us accountable for our actions, to provide everything that we need, and to make us in to the men and women He created us to be. More of us might consider taking the time to either plant a garden or learn a craft, to work a little bit more patience into our lives.

Forgiveness - Have you ever watched someone trapped in unforgiveness? It is so sad to witness. A friend said it is like watching someone personally drink poison in hopes of killing someone else. Jesus came to change all of that destruction and division! He gave His life for each of us, that the bitter trap of "getting even" could be broken, once and for all. He paid the price for all of the evil in the world, and now generously shares His blood-bought forgiveness with us. Put this forgiveness on like the most beautiful outfit you've ever had—because that's exactly what it is. The world is so full of outrage, wrath, lawsuits, mean comments, get-even, bloodthirsty nastiness. As followers of Christ, let's follow Him in laying down our lives and rights for one another in forgiveness. 

Love - the greatest force in the universe is God's greatest gift to you. All of the fairy tales speak of this power: the self-sacrifice of the bravest in the land. It is a power that requires another as beneficiary, and there are plenty of people surrounding us that need a visible demonstration of God's love that you and I can show them. We can put on His love each day, and as Paul wrote in another letter to another group of believers find that God's love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails

We can make a conscious choice to put on all of these things each day.

Did you wake up feeling grumpy or angry this morning? Try reaching into your heart closet and pulling out God's compassion. Wrap yourself up in it, so instead of sowing more death and destruction and division into this broken world, you can be a part of healing a little bit of it.

Are you walking around today mulling over an offense that you just can’t (aka won’t!) let go? Instead of letting that offense eat you alive, reach into your heart closet and pull out some of God's kindness and humility. The Bible clearly teaches that none of us is without sin, which means that we had better not pick up any rocks to throw at anybody else. Wrap yourself in the garments of Christ, Who gave His life for each of us when we were still His enemies.

Are you feeling frustrated and impatient? Reach for the garment of patience today. Slow down and take some deep breaths, and remember that God is absolutely in control and sees everything. Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked, and each person will reap what he sows for good or for ill, in God‘s timing. We can trust Him to be a perfect keeper of time. We get into a lot of trouble and cause a lot of trouble when we try to take the timetable into our own hands.

The world wants us to put on its garments of impatience, hostility, vengeance, fear, and a complete lack of self control. But God has given us free access to the most glorious closet, available 24 hours a day. He has done the hard work of conquering death, hell and the grave, and now invites us into His beautiful work of restoration and reconciliation.

It’s time for a wardrobe refresh for so many of us! Our families, friends, neighbors, and coworkers are so hungry for someone to dare to be a non-conformist and break out the beautiful garments of peace. Reach to this wonderful closet today and clothe yourself in the dignity and beauty of Christ. 

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Thank you so much for sharing these thoughts with me. I'd love to introduce you to a fun, wholesome mystery for the young adult or just young-at-heart reader in your life called Friday Night on the Frio River—you can read more about it on the books portion of this blog. It's available on Amazon or any online bookstore, or just click the link below to order your copy today! 

Don't just take my word for it...a real-life reader (age 12) set down the book after finishing the last page and declared, "This is going to be a best-seller!"

Friday Night on the Frio River